Regulatory authority

1. The Parties shall ensure that regulatory authorities for electronic communication services are legally distinct and functionally independent from any service supplier of electronic communication services. If a Party retains ownership or control of a service supplier providing public communication networks or services, such Party shall ensure the effective structural separation of the regulatory function from activities associated with ownership or control.

2. The Parties shall ensure that the regulatory authority is sufficiently empowered to regulate the sector. The tasks to be undertaken by a regulatory authority shall be made public in an easily accessible and clear form, in particular where those tasks are assigned to more than one body.

3. The Parties shall ensure that the decisions of and the procedures used by the regulatory authorities are impartial with respect to all market participants and transparent.

4. The regulatory authority shall have the power to carry out an analysis of the indicative list of relevant product and service markets which are included in the

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attached Annexes³¹ to this Agreement. Where the regulatory authority is required to determine under Article 118 [of this Agreement] whether to impose, maintain, amend or withdraw obligations it shall determine on the basis of a market analysis whether the relevant market is effectively competitive.

5. Where the regulatory authority determines that a relevant market is not effectively competitive, it shall identify and designate service suppliers with significant market power on that market and shall impose, maintain or amend specific regulatory obligations referred to Article 118 [of this Agreement] as it is appropriate. Where the regulatory authority concludes that the market is effectively competitive it shall not impose or maintain any of the regulatory obligations referred to in Article 118 [of this Agreement].

6. The Parties shall ensure that a service supplier affected by the decision of a regulatory authority shall have a right to appeal against that decision to an appeal body that is independent of the parties involved in the decision. The Parties shall ensure that the merits of the case are duly taken into account. Pending the outcome of any such appeal, the decision of the regulator shall stand, unless the appeal body decides otherwise. Where the appeal body is not judicial in character, written reasons for its decision shall always be given and its decisions shall also be subject to review by an impartial and independent judicial authority. Decisions taken by appeal bodies shall be effectively enforced.

7. The Parties shall ensure that where the regulatory authorities intend to take measures related to any of the provisions of this Sub-Section and which have a significant impact to the relevant market, they give the interested parties the opportunity to comment on the draft measure within a reasonable period of time. Regulators shall publish their consultation procedures. The results of the consultation procedure shall be made publicly available except in the case of confidential information.

8. The Parties shall ensure that service suppliers providing electronic communication networks and services provide all the information, including financial information, necessary for regulatory authorities to ensure conformity with the provisions of this Sub-Section or decisions made in accordance with this Sub-Section. These service suppliers shall provide such information promptly on request and to the timescales and level of detail required by the regulatory authority. The information requested by the regulatory authority shall be proportionate to the performance of that task. The regulatory authority shall give the reasons justifying its request for information.

Article 117

Дата добавления: 2015-09-06