NOTICE TO MEMBERS Petition No 1500/2024 by Rui Martins (Portuguese), on behalf of Iniciativa Cidadãos pela Cibersegurança, on supporting the use of Rich Communication Services (RCS) in mobile phone...

European Parliament 2024-2029 Committee on Petitions 19.5.2025 NOTICE TO MEMBERS Subject: Petition No 1500/2024 by Rui Martins (Portuguese), on behalf of Iniciativa Cidadãos pela Cibersegurança, on supporting the use of Rich Communication Services (RCS) in mobile phones throughout the EU 1. Summary of petition The petitioner claims that, the RCS is still not widely implemented in the European Union. He points out that, in Portugal, no telecom operator supports RCS on iPhone devices, in contrast to Spain, where all operators already support this standard. In his opinion, this situation compromises the security and communication access of Portuguese citizens. Therefore, he requests: to make RCS support mandatory for all telecom operators operating in the European Union, regardless of the type of device used by consumers; ensure that this support is provided at no additional cost to users and promote technological harmonization among Member States, ensuring a higher level of communication security and preventing crimes such as fraud and phishing. 2. Admissibility Declared admissible on 12 March 2025. Information requested from Commission under Rule 233(5). 3. Commission reply, received on 19 May 2025 The European Electronic Communications Code (Directive (EU) 2018/1972) does not provide for a legal basis for mandating the deployment of a certain type of interpersonal communication service, like Rich Communication Services. However, as indicated in the...