Article 14 · Gigabit Infrastructure Act

Contents

Article 14Competent bodies#

1.Member States shall establish or designate one or more competent bodies to carry out the tasks assigned to the national dispute settlement body in accordance with Article 13(1) (the ‘national dispute settlement body’).

10.Any decision taken by a competent body shall be subject to an appeal, in accordance with national law, before a fully independent appeal body, including a body of judicial character. Article 31 of Directive (EU) 2018/1972 shall apply mutatis mutandis to any appeal pursuant to this paragraph.The right to appeal in accordance with the first subparagraph shall be without prejudice to the right of the parties to bring the dispute before the national competent court.

2.The national dispute settlement body shall be legally distinct from, and functionally independent of, any network operator and any public sector body owning or controlling physical infrastructure involved in the dispute. Member States that retain ownership or control of network operators shall ensure effective structural separation of the functions related to the national dispute settlement procedures and those of the single information point from activities associated with ownership or control.National dispute settlement bodies shall act independently and objectively, and shall not seek or take instructions from any other body when deciding on the disputes submitted to them. This shall not prevent supervision in accordance with national law. Only competent appeal bodies shall have the power to suspend or overturn decisions of the national dispute settlement bodies.

3.The national dispute settlement body may charge fees to cover the costs of carrying out the tasks assigned to it.

4.All parties concerned by a dispute shall cooperate fully with the national dispute settlement body.

5.The functions of a single information point referred to in Articles 3 to 10, 12 and 13 shall be performed by one or more competent bodies appointed by Member States at national, regional or local level, as appropriate. In order to cover the costs of carrying out those functions, fees may be charged for the use of the single information points.

6.Paragraph 2, first subparagraph, shall apply mutatis mutandis to the competent bodies performing the functions of a single information point.

7.The competent bodies shall exercise their powers impartially, transparently and in a timely manner. Member States shall ensure that they shall have adequate technical, financial and human resources to carry out the tasks assigned to them.

8.Member States shall publish the tasks to be undertaken by each competent body via a single information point, in particular where those tasks are assigned to more than one competent body or where the assigned tasks have changed. Where appropriate, the competent bodies shall consult and cooperate with each other on matters of common interest.

9.Member States shall notify to the Commission the identity of each competent body, in accordance with this Article, for carrying out a function under this Regulation, and their respective responsibilities and any modification thereof, before such designation or modification enters into force.

Defined terms · 15

Show every defined term

access point
means a physical point, located inside or outside the building, accessible to undertakings that provide or that are authorised to provide public electronic communications networks, where connection to the fibre-ready in-building physical infrastructure is made available;
body governed by public law
means a body that has all of the following characteristics:
civil works
means every outcome of building or civil engineering works taken as a whole that is sufficient in itself to fulfil an economic or technical function and entails one or more elements of a physical infrastructure;
domestic communications
means any number-based interpersonal communications service originating in the Member State of the consumer’s domestic provider and terminating at any fixed or mobile number of the national numbering plan of the same Member State;
fibre-ready in-building physical infrastructure
means in-building physical infrastructure intended to host optical fibre elements;
in-building fibre wiring
means optical fibre cables at the end user’s location, including elements under joint ownership, intended to deliver electronic communications services and connecting the building access point with the network termination point;
in-building physical infrastructure
means physical infrastructure or installations at the end user’s location, including elements under joint ownership, intended to host wired and/or wireless access networks, where such access networks are capable of delivering electronic communications services and connecting the building access point with the network termination point;
intra-EU communications
means any number-based interpersonal communications service originating in the Member State of the consumer’s domestic provider and terminating at any fixed or mobile number of the national numbering plan of another Member State.
major renovation works
means civil works at the end user’s location that encompass structural modifications of the entire in-building physical infrastructure or a significant part thereof and that require, in accordance with national law, a building permit;
network operator
means:
number-independent interpersonal communications service
means number-independent interpersonal communications service as defined in Article 2, point (7), of Directive (EU) 2018/1972 of the European Parliament and of the Council;
permit
means an explicit or implicit decision or set of decisions taken simultaneously or successively by one or more competent authorities that are required under national law for an undertaking to carry out building or civil works necessary for the deployment of elements of VHCNs;
physical infrastructure
means: Cables, including dark fibre, as well as elements of networks used for the provision of water intended for human consumption as defined in Article 2, point (1), of Directive (EU) 2020/2184 of the European Parliament and of the Council are not physical infrastructure within the meaning of this Regulation;
public sector body
means a state, regional or local authority, a body governed by public law or an association formed by one or more such authorities or one or more such bodies governed by public law;
rights of way
means rights referred to in Article 43(1) of Directive (EU) 2018/1972, granted to an operator to install facilities on, over or under public or private property to deploy VHCNs and associated facilities.