Net Neutrality in the UK is not the same as in the US
The network neutrality issue is viewed differently in the UK (and Europe generally) versus the US because (1) the markets are different and (2) the regulatory systems are different.
Price discrimination per se is not problematic. It is problematic in the US because it is linked there to market power -- very few Americans have a meaningful choice of more than two broadband providers (one telco and one cable operator). Europeans, thanks to a more robust regulatory framework and despite a relative lack of cable deployment, have far more options. Competition at the broadband level tends to inhibit anticompetitive deviations from net neutrality.
European regulators have a wide range of regulatory and competition law tools to deal with problems if they were to emerge. In the US, regulation (e.g. sections 201-202) is largely ineffective because broadband access has been inappropriately classified as an unregulated information service; competition law is ineffective due to court decisions (Trinko, Goldwasser).
We explain this in our recent WIK research report on network neutrality, co-authored with my colleagues Ken Carter and Christian Wernick (in English!). The paper tries to explain to Europeans why network neutrality manifests itself so differently in Europe than in the US. It is available for download at:
http://www.wik.org/content/diskus/Diskus_314.pdf
There is also a fine paper (reaching similar conclusions) from a couple of years back by Prof. Martin Cave (Warwick) and Pietro Crocioni (Ofcom).
Biting the hand that feeds IT
