Zero rating is a commercial practice whereby certain applications or services do not consume data from the user’s contracted plan.
Recently, the Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional the regulation that allowed mobile operators to decide which applications could be offered free of charge within data plans.
One of the Court’s main arguments was the defense of the net neutrality principle, which establishes that all internet traffic must be treated equally, without prioritizing, slowing down, or blocking certain content.
Allowing some applications to be offered for free would distort that balance, affect users’ freedom of choice, and favor certain services over others, thereby conditioning free access to information.
Similar arguments were used by the Court of Justice of the European Union and the Chilean judiciary, which banned these practices to protect net neutrality, prevent restrictions on free competition, and ensure that consumer decisions are not influenced by this type of offer.
Although the full text of the ruling has not yet been published in Colombia, its effects will begin to apply within a year.
