The Legal Foundations of Net Neutrality in Georgia
Net neutrality stands for equal, non-discriminatory treatment of users and service providers within electronic communications networks. Georgian legislation contains no dedicated net-neutrality norm: the Law of Georgia on Electronic Communications does not directly regulate traffic management. Article 4 of that law establishes the nearest analogous principles, requiring maximum openness, objectivity, non-discrimination, transparency and technological neutrality when the Commission adopts regulatory decisions. Technological neutrality in that provision concerns the regulator’s even-handed treatment of technologies in the rules it sets, not a direct guarantee of network neutrality for users and service providers. Questions touching on network neutrality are therefore assessed through the general principles this law establishes.
The Goals and Principles of Activity in Electronic Communications
Under Article 4, activity in the field aims to satisfy the demand of natural and legal persons for services provided through electronic communications networks and facilities, and to support the formation of an information society, including the development of media literacy. The activity rests on the equality of legal and natural persons, the inadmissibility of monopolistic positions, liberalisation of the services market, free entrepreneurship and competition, the inadmissibility of exclusive authorisations and agreements, the protection of consumers' lawful interests, and the international integration of networks. Together these principles anchor the neutrality of the regulatory regime toward both technologies and market actors.
Competition Regulation and the Tasks of the Commission
Article 20 of the law defines the goals of competition regulation: ensuring the equality of authorised persons and promoting effective competition, encouraging investment in electronic communications networks and facilities together with technological innovation, preventing excessive concentration of market power in the hands of a few authorised persons, and maintaining a transparent, objective and effective regulatory regime for operators with significant market power. Among its tasks are non-discriminatory access or interconnection for willing authorised persons to network elements and free capacities, the prohibition of discrimination against end users and of subsidising particular services, and a transparent and competitive environment for scarce resources. In pursuing these goals the Commission is guided both by this law and by the Law of Georgia on Competition, which keeps sectoral oversight aligned with the general competition framework.