This special issue presents five selected contributions from well-known scholars and policy experts to provide both academia and policy makers from the ICT sector with an overview of the economic impacts of recent net neutrality policy changes in the EU and the US. In both jurisdictions, fundamental policy shifts have been implemented in the last two decades with lengthy and controversial decision-making processes with strong political party affiliations on both sides of the Atlantic. This issue focuses on the history of net neutrality policy making in the EUand theUSwith a particular emphasis on themore recent 2015–2018 period duringwhichmajor policy changes occurred: The European net neutrality legislation was enacted in 2015. Its aim is to “guarantee the continued functioning of the internet ecosystem as an engine of innovation” by imposing net neutrality policies that prohibit any discriminatory uses of networkmanagement practices (such as blocking or throttling of lawful content) by Internet access service providers. In 2015, the US regulatory authority (Federal Communications Commission, FCC) enacted its 2015 Open Internet Order, in which the agency imposed the heavyhanded approach of adopting the 1930s-era rules for regulating monopoly telephone companies on broadband services. According to the Open Internet Order, strict net neutrality rules prohibit blocking, throttling and paid prioritization. Similar to the reasoning in the EU, the Open Internet Order should enhance a virtuous circle where “innovations at the edges of the network enhance consumer demand, leading to expanded investments in broadband infrastructure that, in turn, spark new innovations at the edge.” In 2017, the Federal Communications Commission’s Restoring Internet Freedom Order reversed its 2015 decision. Since then the regulatory regime in the US differs fundamentally from the rather strict regulations imposed in the EU.

中文翻译：

---

关于“欧美最近的网络中立政策”的特刊

本期特刊提供了五位知名学者和政策专家的精选论文，旨在为ICT行业的学术界和政策制定者提供有关欧盟和美国近期净中立性政策变化的经济影响的概述。在这两个辖区中，过去二十年来已经实施了基本的政策转变，决策过程漫长而富有争议，大西洋两岸都有强大的政党联系。本期聚焦于欧盟和美国制定网络中立性政策的历史，尤其着重于最近发生的重大政策变化的2015-2018年期间：欧洲网络中立性立法于2015年颁布。其目的是通过实施网络中立政策来“保证互联网生态系统作为创新引擎的持续运行”，该政策禁止互联网访问服务提供商对网络管理实践进行任何歧视性使用（例如，阻止或限制合法内容）。2015年，美国监管机构（联邦通信委员会（FCC））颁布了2015年开放互联网命令，该机构强加了采取1930年代时代规范宽带电话上的垄断电话公司的规则。根据开放互联网命令（Open Internet Order），严格的网络中立规则禁止阻塞，限制和付费优先级。与欧盟的推论类似，开放互联网订单应促进一个良性循环，其中“网络边缘的创新可以增强消费者的需求，导致对宽带基础设施的投资不断扩大，从而又在边缘引发了新的创新。” 2017年，联邦通信委员会的《恢复互联网自由命令》推翻了其2015年的决定。从那以后，美国的监管制度与欧盟实施的相当严格的监管制度根本不同。