Since the beginning of the internet, net neutrality has meant that all data is equal in the eyes of the internet service providers: every piece of content reaches our computers and phones at the same speed and quality, whoever sent it and whoever is paying. The fear in October 2015, when the European Parliament voted on the first European rules, was that from then on some data would be more equal than others, with priority given to the highest bidders, and that providers would be able to “hide” content by delivering it through a slow lane, restricting our choice and our ability to consume information neutrally. I discussed what the vote meant for individuals and businesses on Radio Sputnik; the interview is below.
What the 2015 vote actually did
The Parliament approved Regulation (EU) 2015/2120, the first law in Europe to guarantee open internet access. It requires providers to treat all traffic equally, without discrimination, restriction or interference, and it bans blocking and throttling except for limited reasons such as court orders, network security and temporary congestion. The critics were right that it left doors open: providers may offer “specialised services” with guaranteed quality, such as some television and telemedicine services, provided the ordinary internet is not degraded, and the rules did not clearly ban “zero rating”, where a provider exempts a favoured app from a customer’s data allowance. Net neutrality was not abolished in 2015, but the argument moved to those exceptions.
Where the UK stands now
The Regulation became part of UK law and stayed there after Brexit, enforced by Ofcom under the Open Internet Access (EU Regulation) Regulations 2016. In October 2023 Ofcom completed a review and took a deliberately liberal view of the exceptions (Net neutrality review, statement of 26 October 2023): most zero-rating offers are now allowed, providers may sell premium retail packages with better quality for particular uses, and they may develop specialised services, so long as the open internet itself is not degraded and the provider does not charge both the customer and the content provider for the same traffic. The fast lane that this article worried about in 2015 has, in a regulated form, arrived.
The United States, whose debate started the whole argument, has gone back and forth. The Federal Communications Commission adopted net neutrality rules in 2015, repealed them in 2017, restored them in 2024, and in January 2025 a federal appeals court struck the restored rules down on the ground that the Commission had no power to make them (Ohio Telecom Association v FCC (6th Cir. 2025)), so the United States now has no federal net neutrality rule at all. Whether British consumers notice any of this depends on how far providers use the freedom Ofcom has given them; so far the market has been more restrained than the regulator. How Britain came to regulate the rest of the internet is the subject of my 2026 series, starting with From the telephone operator to your timeline.
First published 30 October 2015. Reviewed and updated 28 September 2026.