The Dutch Consumers and Markets Authority is threatening fines of up to half a million euros if VodafoneZiggo does not offer a free modem option to all customers before 1 July. According to the market watcher, customers in legacy UPC regions are not yet able to choose their own ‘end devices’, which will become mandatory in July 2021 under the Executive Order End Devices policy.
VodafoneZiggo may be fined 12,500 euros per day, with a maximum of 500,000 euros from 1 July. If all goes well, the situation does not get out of hand. The provider previously explained: “The network in the old UPC region is technically different, so there is more work there to introduce your own modem option.” RTL Nieuws writes that it appears the company wants to complete this operation fully by July 1.
It has been clear for a while that Ziggo does not offer a free modem option in legacy regions where UPC is used, as explained in a comprehensive article at the beginning of Hardware Info 2022. At that time, the ACM announced that it was already investigating the situation and has now resulted in a penalty. Ziggo has also introduced the option of a free modem option for almost all customers in the respective UPC domains; only a small part still needs to be facilitated.
Source: ACM
Source: Hardware Info
