On January 27, 2016, the Ministry of Justice launched a public consultation to debate a Draft Decree ("Draft Decree") on the Brazilian Internet Act (Law No. 12,965/14). The Draft Decree includes exceptions to net neutrality and procedures for data storage by Internet and application service providers.
The market has being anxiously expecting this regulation; the topic of net neutrality gave rise to heated debate during discussions, in the Brazilian Congress, for approval of what became known as the Internet Act.
Among the topics in the Draft Decree, we highlight the following:
- Description of when discriminatory treatment of traffic is permitted (which is an exception to the net neutrality rule) and accepted in view of technical requirements for adequate provision of services and applications or to support emergency services;
- Security and secrecy standards for maintenance of records, personal data and private communications must be established;
- Designation of the Brazilian National Telecommunications Agency as the entity responsible for imposing conditions on telecommunications service providers and to regulate their relationship with value-added service providers.
Contributions to the public consultation must be submitted by February 29, 2016, through the website http://pensando.mj.gov.br/marcocivil/texto-em-debate/minuta/
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