Paris, 12 December 2014
On 25 November of this year, ARCEP published a beta version of its new observatory, measuring the quality of fixed internet access services in France.
In an order dated 12 December 2014, the Conseil d'Etat* judge hearing applications for interim measures rejected a request from Free to suspend the ARCEP decision to publish this report.
In particular, the judge stated that, "on the one hand, the direct source of the serious and immediate harm being claimed by the applicant company is not the contested decision, which calls for an honest and cautious reading of the data contained in the report, but in the behaviour of third parties who did not take into account either the caveat issued in the report, the many reservations and warnings it contains, or the press release that ARCEP issued on 7 December reiterating these caveats; on the other hand, and for that matter, if the report is still available on the ARCEP website, the prejudicial consequences of this publication being cited by the applicant company, supposing they have a direct link to this report, cannot be prevented by a decision to suspend".
ARCEP welcomes this decision, and will continue to work on measuring the quality of fixed internet access services, with the particular aim of improving the information available to users.
* France's highest administrative court
Linked documents
Download the Conseil d'Etat order (pdf - 201KB) (in French) 