Skype owned by Microsoft offers online video and voice calling services.

Online VOIP service Skype (MSFT.O) will appear in court in Belgium after the company refused to hand over customer information in relation to a criminal investigation.

A court in Mechelen, just north of Brussels, had asked for data from messages and calls exchanged on Microsoft’s Skype service, arguing that telecom operators in the country were required to do so.

All telecom companies are legally required to provide data when requested in Belgium however the interesting question is whether Skype is actually considered a telecommunications company. They do not have a telecommunications license as this would require them to offer emergency calls, cause them to face different tax liabilities and offer government access to their service.

If Skype is established by the court as a telecoms operator, the company will have no choice but to give up the requested data whilst possibly facing fines for not handing over the information sooner.

In 2013 French regulators were pushing Skype over its non-registration as a telecoms operator, as required by local law. The case is on-going however it is clear that Microsoft certainly doesn’t want it’s online communications service to be under the same regulation as companies such as AT&T or Deutsche Telekom.

Skype is also in a position that if they were to follow such requests of information it sets a president of the company acting as telco causing further regulation in numerous other countries and weakens its argument to identify itself as an internet communications service.