Public Affairs

LINX Public Affairs exists to obtain advance warning of public policy developments that could affect LINX members and the Internet community as a whole; to inform our members about important policy developments at a time when it is still possible to influence them; and to educate, inform and influence regulators and legislators.

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How LINX Can Help

As the UK’s largest association of network operators, LINX is uniquely well-placed to help you achieve your policy goals. Drawing upon the collective expertise of our 900+ members, we work to educate, inform and influence politicians and public servants on behalf of ISPs and network operators.

Internet Service Providers operate in a complex and uncertain regulatory environment. New domestic laws, EU directives and international treaties can make or break Internet business models. For your network to thrive, it is not enough to merely adapt to change – you need to be sure that the regulatory environment continues to support Internet innovation.

Our Public Affairs department can provide your business with a number of benefits, including:

Lobbying Regulatory awareness Accountability Partnership

Lobbying

We work closely with policymakers and regulators in the UK, Europe and internationally to promote effective policies that support self-regulation, investment and innovation.

Regulatory awareness

Through briefings, presentations and blog articles, we can help you keep up with policy developments that could affect your business.

Accountability

LINX is mutually owned and controlled by its members. Everything we do is aimed at promoting the interests of current and future members, and is subject to their approval. Regular member meetings, board-elections and consultations give members the opportunity to directly shape our policies.

Partnership

By working collaboratively with your company’s existing public policy team, we can send an even stronger message to the government.

Public Affairs Mission

There are four elements to the Public Affairs mission

To monitor developments in relative policy areas
To inform members
To educate decision makers on public policy and others with influence over public policy decisions
To persuade policy makers to adopt decisions consisten with our members’ interests

“The exceptional Public Affairs engagement work is something LINX champions above others, and can justifiably be proud of.”

Niall Donaghy, GEANT (AS21320)

Our Geographies

LINX’s Public Affairs activities are organised according to three geographical categories:

UK Domestic

LINX is incorporated in the UK and subject to UK law, so the UK is our home jurisdiction. We recognise that many of our members also have business elsewhere, and a considerable number have only very tenuous connection to the UK, but all members share an interest in the UK being a good place for network operators to do business, at least to the extent of supporting interconnection and peering.

European Union

Now the UK has left the European Union, it is free to legislate in ways that may deviate from EU law, but the EU remain an extremely important influence on UK public policy, and the most important foreign influence. EU law continues to affect many of our members directly, and the EU claims the right to impose EU law on Internet services established anywhere in the world, if the service is used by an EU citizen or organisation.

LINX members benefit from our ability to influence EU policy through our partners at EuroISPA in three ways:

because of the indirect effect this has on influencing UK policy;
by mitigating unnecessary and undesirable divergence at the EU end (in tandem with equivalent efforts at the UK end), and
because LINX members have a direct interest in the regulatory environment in the EU, either as an important foreign market for them or, in the case of many LINX members, as their home market.

Global

LINX also engages with certain environments for the development of relevant policy that have global scope, particularly in the area of global Internet governance. This includes the technical management organisations of the Internet technical community known as the “I* institutions”: the Internet Society, the Regional Internet Registries, ICANN and the IETF.

On occasion, LINX engages directly or indirectly with international intergovernmental institutions that develop global policy or the precursors of policy, such as the OECD, the Council of Europe, and various UN institutions, as appropriate to the topic and subject to LINX’s practical capacity to make an impact.