Earlier this year, the European Parliament voted for strong rules that would prevent telecommunications companies from creating fast and slow lanes on the Internet. But that measure is now facing significant opposition from some leaders like Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany who want Europe to water down the rules to benefit big telephone companies.

In a speech last week in Berlin, Ms. Merkel said telecommunications companies should be allowed to divide Internet access into two tiers, one for “special services” like telemedicine and self-driving cars and one for everything else. Ms. Merkel said her proposal would encourage innovation by providing more reliable and secure service to applications that require it while guaranteeing that all other Internet traffic is treated equally by telecom companies.

There are major problems with that approach. For starters, it is not clear who would decide what can be treated as a special service and how much of a premium cable and telephone companies would be allowed charge for handling such services.

A lot of innovation comes from young, small companies that will probably be least able to afford to pay for the kind of special access Ms. Merkel has outlined. As a result, a two-tiered Internet would benefit established Internet businesses like Google, Amazon and Facebook, for whom special access fees would likely amount to a minor cost of doing business.