Internet

The Internet is a network which first of all allowed computer-connected people to communicate with each other, then to transport not only messages (mails), but also voice, but also images, and finally more generally and abstract: "data". Moreover, the Internet is now referred to as having the base, or even the synonym of "digital".

The Internet is not a market but undoubtedly a mode of communication and distribution of goods (e-commerce) or rather a "space", the digital in which markets are developing, that of online advertising for example, and the phenomenon of platforms which refers to the new notion of a two-sided market and which one seeks to regulate in a possibly specific way.

Indeed, the Internet calls for regulation, even if some would like it to be only the space for the expression of freedoms, even of subjective rights, the right of which would be the right of access. The principle that we must regulate the digital space is particularly due to the fact that it is the site of many illicit activities, for example money laundering or pedophilia. Discussions focus in advance on the modes of regulation, at first sight difficult to imagine due to the very fact of the immateriality of this "virtual" space.

Indeed, information is elusive and circulates in an instant across the entire planet and the avenue often proposed is that of self-regulation by providers of access and content. Public regulation has developed so far intervened on specific issues, for example the protection of intellectual property rights against illegal downloading, entrusted to HADOPI, or the regulation of online games, entrusted to ARJEL) .

The regulation of the internet remains to be done and the fundamental questions are not yet decided, in the very principles, that of the "net neutrality. The disputes focus even more on the question of knowing who could be the" Regulator of " Internet ": the telecoms regulator, the audiovisual regulator, the personal data regulator, or the companies themselves.