The European Commission is currently holding a public consultation on future cloud and AI policies in the EU. Today, Arcep is publishing its contribution to that consultation. In it, the Authority calls for ex-ante, pro-investment regulation of cloud computing and artificial intelligence on a Europe-wide scale, drawing on the success of electronic communications regulation in France, which made it number one in Europe in the share of fixed broadband subscriptions providing speeds of over 1 Gigabit/s, according to the latest European Commission rankings.
On 25 and 26 June, Arcep Chair, Laure de La Raudière, met with MEPs in Brussels to argue this position.
Clear and stable regulation provides the predictability needed for long-term investment
Drawing on its experience in applying pro-investment regulation to electronic communication networks (including co-investment for deploying optical fibre networks), Arcep is calling for the creation of clear and stable economic regulation of the cloud and AI. It also suggests adopting tools that borrow from electronic communications regulation: monitoring investments, transparency on the conditions governing access to infrastructures, openness to startups.
“We are currently hearing a certain refrain, lauding the supposed benefits of deregulation as a way to stimulate investments… France’s telecom market offers us perfect evidence to the contrary: regulation provided stability and predictability, sharing and efficiency, innovation and competitive prices. European economic regulation of cloud computing and AI are crucial to creating this framework of trust,” says Arcep Chair, Laure de La Raudière.
From an environmental standpoint, the Authority stresses the importance of harmonised, Europe-wide measurement of digital technology’s impacts. It is calling for these issues to be incorporated into data centres’ deployment strategies. It also suggests disseminating best practices for the ecodesign of AI services, and of digital services in general, to take the environmental issues surrounding ICT into account “at the source,” and thereby limit the need for new storage capacity and new network equipment. In addition to the environmental benefits, greener regulation will be a lever for competitiveness on the global stage.
In the generative AI era, regulation that safeguards an open market is vital to protecting fair competition and a pro-investment framework
In light of the growing prominence of generative AI agent models, Arcep is calling attention to the risks of asymmetry between integrated players and startups. It emphasises that these new models’ ability to interact with traditional digital services (search engines, mapping and traffic services, video platforms…) creates a decisive challenge to safeguarding innovation and diversity.
Data portability, providing documented APIs, and guaranteeing access to resources, are all regulatory tools that can be deployed to open up the AI and cloud market, to prevent dominant players from taking hold as gatekeepers, and to enable the emergence of a diversified digital ecosystem. An agile implementation of Europe’s Data Act and Digital Markets Act could help to achieve this goal.
“The Commission would be right to designate Big Tech companies as the gatekeepers of their cloud computing services, without which history will repeat itself: new barriers to entry will be erected for innovative startups,” explains Laure de La Raudière.
AI and cloud regulation that undergirds European ambitions
Arcep reiterates that regulation is a vital lever for supporting a European economic and industrial policy designed to strengthen its strategic autonomy and environmental sustainability.