Constitutional Constraints on Regulatory Asymmetries in Telecommunications Regulation in Brazil

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26512/lstr.v16i1.53741

Keywords:

Anatel. Regulatory asymmetries. General Regulation of Consumer Rights for Telecommunication Services. Small Providers. Responsive regulation.

Abstract

[Purpose] This article aims to analyze the legal-constitutional validity of the new wording of the General Regulation of Consumer Rights for Telecommunication Services (RGC) as a measure of regulatory asymmetry promoted by the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel).

[Methodology/approach/design] To this end, we examine the role of the Agency as a normative agent empowered to establish asymmetries in the regulation of the sector, which, however, must respect the principles of equality, free competition, consumer rights, and the core essence of weighted rights.

[Results] The analysis of the existing asymmetries shows that the majority of telecommunications services users in Brazil are not protected by the RGC. As a consequence, the RGC either does not recognize rights considered essential to them, or creates rights of enjoyment considered superfluous, burdening only the major operators. Consequently, the measure is not in line with the responsive regulation model adopted by Anatel.

[Practical implications] The article points to the need to review either the regulatory asymmetries granted to Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), as they are, in fact, institutional guarantees for consumer protection and therefore non-negotiable, or the regime of rights and obligations imposed by the RGC on providers as a whole, which requires compliance with measures that, not being essential to consumers, could not be demanded from operators in general.

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Author Biographies

Marcio Iorio Aranha, University of Brasilia

Marcio Iorio Aranha is an Associate Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law at the University of Brasilia School of Law He is the Executive-Director of the University of Brasilia School of Law Center on Law and Regulation (NDSR/FD/UnB), where he is chief editor of the Journal of Law and Regulation, and the Law, State and Telecommunications Review. He founded and currently co-coordinates the University of Brasilia Telecommunications Law Research Group (GETEL). Member of the Centro Latam Digital (centrolatam.digital) Board of Advisors since 2023. From 2014 to 2023, he was the Dean of the Research Center on Communication Policy, Law, Economics and Technology (CCOM/UnB). Since 2015, he has been an International Affiliate of the Annenberg Research Network on International Communication (ARNIC/University of Southern California), where he had been Visiting Fellow from 2007 to 2014. He was vice-president of the Communication Policy Research Latin America network (CPRLATAM) from 2013 to 2019. He teaches at the University of Brasilia Ph.D, LL.M and J.D. programs of Law on the subjects of Constitutional and Administrative Law, General Theory of Public Law, Regulatory Theory and Practice, and Telecommunications Law. He led the team that wrote the Scoping Study Reports for the Brazilian Government's Review of the Telecommunication Regulatory Model (2019-2021), the Responsive Regulation Report for the Civil Aviation Agency (2021), the Broadcasting Legal and Regulatory Reform in Brazil (2022-2023), and the Digital Ecosystem Regulation Reform in Brazil (2022-2024).

Laura Schertel Mendes, IDP

Pesquisadora sênior visitante na Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, com a Bolsa Capes/Alexander von Humboldt. Ela é advogada e professora de direito na Universidade de Brasília (UnB) e no Instituto Brasileiro de Desenvolvimento, Educação e Pesquisa (IDP). É diretora do Centro de Internet, Direito e Sociedade do IDP, membro do Conselho Nacional de Proteção de Dados e Privacidade (CNPD), co-diretora da Associação Luso-Alemã de Professores de Direito (DLJV-Berlim) e relatora da Comissão de Juristas responsável por aconselhar o Senado Brasileiro sobre a regulamentação da inteligência artificial no Brasil. E-mail: laura.schertel@unb.br.

Gabriel Campos Soares da Fonseca, USP

Doutorando em Direito Econômico na Universidade de São Paulo (USP), com período de pesquisa no Weizenbaum Institut e no Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung. Pesquisador Associado ao CCOM/UnB e ao CEDIS/IDP. E-mail: gabrielcsfonseca@gmail.com.

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Published

2024-05-11

How to Cite

IORIO ARANHA, Marcio; SCHERTEL MENDES, Laura; CAMPOS SOARES DA FONSECA, Gabriel. Constitutional Constraints on Regulatory Asymmetries in Telecommunications Regulation in Brazil. Law, State and Telecommunications Review, [S. l.], v. 16, n. 1, p. 384–411, 2024. DOI: 10.26512/lstr.v16i1.53741. Disponível em: https://periodicos.unb.br/index.php/RDET/article/view/53741. Acesso em: 12 dec. 2024.