(5)

The following Articles are inserted: ‘Article 6a Abolition of retail roaming surcharges With effect from 15 June 2017, provided that the legislative act to be adopted following the proposal referred to in Article 19(2) is applicable on that date, roaming providers shall not levy any surcharge in addition to the domestic retail price on roaming customers in any Member State for any regulated roaming calls made or received, for any regulated roaming SMS messages sent and for any regulated data roaming services used, including MMS messages, nor any general charge to enable the terminal equipment or service to be used abroad, subject to Articles 6b and 6c. Article 6b Fair use 1. Roaming providers may apply in accordance with this Article and the implementing acts referred to in Article 6d a ‘fair use policy’ to the consumption of regulated retail roaming services provided at the applicable domestic retail price level, in order to prevent abusive or anomalous usage of regulated retail roaming services by roaming customers, such as the use of such services by roaming customers in a Member State other than that of their domestic provider for purposes other than periodic travel. Any fair use policy shall enable the roaming provider’s customers to consume volumes of regulated retail roaming services at the applicable domestic retail price that are consistent with their respective tariff plans. 2. Article 6e shall apply to regulated retail roaming services exceeding any limits under any fair use policy. Article 6c Sustainability of the abolition of retail roaming surcharges 1. In specific and exceptional circumstances, with a view to ensuring the sustainability of its domestic charging model, where a roaming provider is not able to recover its overall actual and projected costs of providing regulated roaming services in accordance with Articles 6a and 6b, from its overall actual and projected revenues from the provision of such services, that roaming provider may apply for authorisation to apply a surcharge. That surcharge shall be applied only to the extent necessary to recover the costs of providing regulated retail roaming services having regard to the applicable maximum wholesale charges. 2. Where a roaming provider decides to avail itself of paragraph 1 of this Article, it shall without delay submit an application to the national regulatory authority and provide it with all necessary information in accordance with the implementing acts referred to in Article 6d. Every 12 months thereafter, the roaming provider shall update that information and submit it to the national regulatory authority. 3. Upon receipt of an application pursuant to paragraph 2, the national regulatory authority shall assess whether the roaming provider has established that it is unable to recover its costs in accordance with paragraph 1, with the effect that the sustainability of its domestic charging model would be undermined. The assessment of the sustainability of the domestic charging model shall be based on relevant objective factors specific to the roaming provider, including objective variations between roaming providers in the Member State concerned and the level of domestic prices and revenues. The national regulatory authority shall authorise the surcharge where the conditions laid down in paragraph 1 and this paragraph are met. 4. Within one month of receipt of an application pursuant to paragraph 2, the national regulatory authority shall authorise the surcharge unless the application is manifestly unfounded or provides insufficient information. Where the national regulatory authority considers that the application is manifestly unfounded, or considers that insufficient information has been provided, it shall take a final decision within a further period of two months, after having given the roaming provider the opportunity to be heard, authorising, amending or refusing the surcharge. Article 6d Implementation of fair use policy and of sustainability of the abolition of retail roaming surcharges 1. By 15 December 2016, in order to ensure consistent application of Articles 6b and 6c, the Commission shall, after having consulted BEREC, adopt implementing acts laying down detailed rules on the application of fair use policy and on the methodology for assessing the sustainability of the abolition of retail roaming surcharges and on the application to be submitted by a roaming provider for the purposes of that assessment. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 6(2). 2. As regards Article 6b, when adopting implementing acts laying down detailed rules on the application of fair use policy, the Commission shall take into account the following: (a) the evolution of pricing and consumption patterns in the Member States; (b) the degree of convergence of domestic price levels across the Union; (c) the travelling patterns in the Union; (d) any observable risks of distortion of competition and investment incentives in domestic and visited markets. 3. As regards Article 6c, when adopting implementing acts laying down detailed rules on the methodology for assessing the sustainability of the abolition of retail roaming surcharges for a roaming provider, the Commission shall base them on the following: (a) the determination of the overall actual and projected costs of providing regulated retail roaming services by reference to the effective wholesale roaming charges for unbalanced traffic and a reasonable share of the joint and common costs necessary to provide regulated retail roaming services; (b) the determination of overall actual and projected revenues from the provision of regulated retail roaming services; (c) the consumption of regulated retail roaming services and the domestic consumption by the roaming provider’s customers; (d) the level of competition, prices and revenues in the domestic market, and any observable risk that roaming at domestic retail prices would appreciably affect the evolution of such prices. 4. The Commission shall periodically review the implementing acts adopted pursuant to paragraph 1 in the light of market developments. 5. The national regulatory authority shall strictly monitor and supervise the application of the fair use policy and the measures on the sustainability of the abolition of retail roaming surcharges, taking utmost account of relevant objective factors specific to the Member State concerned and of relevant objective variations between roaming providers. Without prejudice to the procedure set out in Article 6c(3), the national regulatory authority shall in a timely manner enforce the requirements of Articles 6b and 6c and the implementing acts adopted pursuant to paragraph 1 of this Article. The national regulatory authority may at any time require the roaming provider to amend or discontinue the surcharge if it does not comply with Article 6b or 6c. The national regulatory authority shall inform the Commission annually concerning the application of Articles 6b and 6c, and of this Article. Article 6e Provision of regulated retail roaming services 1. Without prejudice to the second subparagraph, where a roaming provider applies a surcharge for the consumption of regulated retail roaming services in excess of any limits under any fair use policy, it shall meet the following requirements (excluding VAT): (a) any surcharge applied for regulated roaming calls made, regulated roaming SMS messages sent and regulated data roaming services shall not exceed the maximum wholesale charges provided for in Articles 7(2), 9(1) and 12(1), respectively; (b) the sum of the domestic retail price and any surcharge applied for regulated roaming calls made, regulated roaming SMS messages sent or regulated data roaming services shall not exceed EUR 0,19 per minute, EUR 0,06 per SMS message and EUR 0,20 per megabyte used, respectively; (c) any surcharge applied for regulated roaming calls received shall not exceed the weighted average of maximum mobile termination rates across the Union set out in accordance with paragraph 2. Roaming providers shall not apply any surcharge to a regulated roaming SMS message received or to a roaming voicemail message received. This shall be without prejudice to other applicable charges such as those for listening to such messages. Roaming providers shall charge roaming calls made and received on a per second basis. Roaming providers may apply an initial minimum charging period not exceeding 30 seconds to calls made. Roaming providers shall charge their customers for the provision of regulated data roaming services on a per-kilobyte basis, except for MMS messages, which may be charged on a per-unit basis. In such a case, the retail charge which a roaming provider may levy on its roaming customer for the transmission or receipt of a roaming MMS message shall not exceed the maximum retail charge for regulated data roaming services set out in the first subparagraph. During the period referred to in Article 6f(1), this paragraph shall not preclude offers which provide roaming customers, for a per diem or any other fixed periodic charge, with a certain volume of regulated roaming services consumption on condition that the consumption of the full amount of that volume leads to a unit price for regulated roaming calls made, calls received, SMS messages sent and data roaming services which does not exceed the respective domestic retail price and the maximum surcharge as set out in the first subparagraph of this paragraph. 2. By 31 December 2015, the Commission shall, after consulting BEREC and subject to the second subparagraph of this paragraph, adopt implementing acts setting out the weighted average of maximum mobile termination rates referred to in point (c) of the first subparagraph of paragraph 1. The Commission shall review those implementing acts annually. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 6(2). The weighted average of maximum mobile termination rates shall be based on the following criteria: (a) the maximum level of mobile termination rates imposed in the market for wholesale voice call termination on individual mobile networks by the national regulatory authorities in accordance with Articles 7 and 16 of the Framework Directive and Article 13 of the Access Directive, and (b) the total number of subscribers in Member States. 3. Roaming providers may offer, and roaming customers may deliberately choose, a roaming tariff other than one set in accordance with Articles 6a, 6b, 6c and paragraph 1 of this Article, by virtue of which roaming customers benefit from a different tariff for regulated roaming services than they would have been accorded in the absence of such a choice. The roaming provider shall remind those roaming customers of the nature of the roaming advantages which would thereby be lost. Without prejudice to the first subparagraph, roaming providers shall apply a tariff set in accordance with Articles 6a and 6b, and paragraph 1 of this Article to all existing and new roaming customers automatically. Any roaming customer may, at any time, request to switch to or from a tariff set in accordance with Articles 6a, 6b, 6c and paragraph 1 of this Article. When roaming customers deliberately choose to switch from or back to a tariff set in accordance with Articles 6a, 6b, 6c and paragraph 1 of this Article, any switch shall be made within one working day of receipt of the request, shall be free of charge and shall not entail conditions or restrictions pertaining to elements of the subscriptions other than roaming. Roaming providers may delay a switch until the previous roaming tariff has been effective for a minimum specified period not exceeding two months. 4. Roaming providers shall ensure that a contract which includes any type of regulated retail roaming service specifies the main characteristics of that regulated retail roaming service provided, including in particular: (a) the specific tariff plan or tariff plans and, for each tariff plan, the types of services offered, including the volumes of communications; (b) any restrictions imposed on the consumption of regulated retail roaming services provided at the applicable domestic retail price level, in particular quantified information on how any fair use policy is applied by reference to the main pricing, volume or other parameters of the provided regulated retail roaming service concerned. Roaming providers shall publish the information referred to in the first subparagraph. Article 6f Transitional retail roaming surcharges 1. From 30 April 2016 until 14 June 2017, roaming providers may apply a surcharge in addition to the domestic retail price for the provision of regulated retail roaming services. 2. During the period referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article, Article 6e shall apply mutatis mutandis.’.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-10-29 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.