What’s geo-blocking?
Any restriction imposed by online shops based on nationality, place of residence or place of connection.
For example, when you are shopping from Belgium and find the coat you want on a French website. You fill your cart, double-check you have picked the right size and click “buy”. The message “You are being re-directed to the Belgian page of this website” appears on your screen and you find yourself on the Belgian page of the website, where the object of your dreams is not available.
This is called country redirect and it is one of the several barriers that prevents shoppers from picking the online shop they prefer.
Other forms of customer discrimination include:
- The website not accepting a means of payment (for example credit cards) from a different EU country
- Not being able to register on the website because of where someone lives of from where someone is connecting from
A study by the European Commission, which analysed thousands of websites all over the EU, discovered that in only 37% of cases people were able to complete a purchase from another EU country and buy the goods that they wanted. In the other cases, online shoppers experienced some form of restriction, commonly known as geo-blocking
Why did the European Parliament work to stop geo-blocking?
Parliament wanted this discrimination to end, so that people can benefit, both online and offline, from an integrated single market.
Polish EPP member Róża Thun, the MEP in charge of steering the rules through Parliament, said: “After roaming, after portability, I am really proud that, in cooperation with the European Commission, we managed to find a solution to the problem of geo-blocking. This will serve millions of citizens.”
The new rules apply to a wide range of goods and services, including:
- physical goods such as furniture and electronics
- online services such as cloud services or website hosting
- entertainment services such as tickets to leisure parks and concerts