Control actions and support
Annual report 2024
Electronic communications market
In April 2024, the BIPT organised a workshop to inform the sector of the priorities in terms of inspections in favour of consumers. All the consumer protection provisions monitored by the BIPT will be checked for compliance between 2024 and 2026. The first inspections carried out this year concerned the Easy Switch procedure, the waiting time to reach the customer service and the refund of prepaid credit in the event of a number transfer. The BIPT also controlled radio equipment, refurbished or not, that was placed on the market, and this to ensure compliance with standards set in the RED (Radio Equipment Directive). In order to control the new cybersecurity requirements for radio equipment, particularly connected products (IoT), which will come into force on 1 August 2025, the BIPT has also set up an IoT test laboratory, where it can examine the cybersecurity of radio equipment by disassembling the product. The BIPT also published its annual report on the monitoring of net neutrality.
Postal market
On the postal market, the BIPT supervised the implementation of and enforced the Parcel Act, which aims to improve the working conditions of parcel deliverers and to establish sustainable competition in the parcel delivery sector. The Royal Decree on sustainability indicators, which requires the largest postal service providers in the parcel delivery services segment to collect certain information in the context of sustainability, tasked the BIPT with defining a methodology for two emission indicators in CO2 equivalents. In 2024, the BIPT developed this methodology, in close collaboration with postal service providers. The BIPT’s monitoring mission also includes the task of controlling each year the tariff increases for the small user basket of bpost’s postal products. The BIPT also conducted an audit of bpost’s measurement systems used to measure the quality of delivery times. It also monitored the implementation of the regulation on cross-border parcel delivery services.
Digital sector
In the context of the Digital Services Act (DSA), the BIPT’s task to enforce this regulation in Belgium is twofold: the BIPT ensures national coordination and is the Belgian single point of contact, and this while carrying out its duties as a competent authority. The BIPT took several major actions to continue to prepare itself to the implementation of the DSA. It also handled user complaints, particularly regarding the Telegram platform, and actively participated in the European Board for Digital Services and its eight working groups.
Within the framework of the Terrorist Content Online Regulation (TCOR), the BIPT is competent to impose sanctions on hosting service providers in the event of a breach of the obligations imposed by the TCOR. The BIPT is closely cooperating at national level, with the Federal Prosecutor’s Office and the Federal Police, and at European level, with the competent authorities of the other Member States, the European Commission and Europol. For the year 2024, the BIPT was informed of 93 orders issued by the Belgian Federal Police regarding hosting service providers established in Belgium or which have a legal representative in Belgium and abroad. The BIPT also received 454 cross-border orders relating entirely to content provided via Telegram’s hosting services.
