The Regulation (2018/302) on geo-blocking – that started to apply on 3 December 2018 – is part of a set of new rules and developments that are the result of the creation of the Digital Single Market (further: DMS) [1]. The goal of this DSM is to create the best possible access to the online world for individuals and businesses. The DSM attempts to ensure fair competition in online activities for EU members and businesses in the EU. This system of fair competition in online activities leads to seamless access in online activities for EU members and businesses, no matter what their nationality, place of residence or place of establishment may be.

By the use of geo-blocking – blocking or inhibiting access to cross-border services or goods that are offered on online interfaces based on nationality or on geographical location – customers’ access to internet content is limited, which disturbs the full potential of the DSM. An example: if an inhabitant of the Netherlands would want to place an order on a German website, he might be automatically redirected to the Dutch website to finish his order there. His access to the cross border website is then inhibited and the possibility to finish an order on a foreign website, where access was granted in the first place, is precluded. The Regulation contains rules to prevent this sort of discrimination by eliminating unjustified geo-blocking.  These practices are only prohibited when they are not objectively justified. First of all, the rules of this Regulation do not apply to purely internal situations. Secondly, they do not apply to audio-visual services, copyright protected content, healthcare and social services, services in the field of transport, gambling and financial services or retail financial services.

The new Regulation applies to:

1. Traders: any natural person or legal person who is acting for purposes relating to the trade, business, craft or profession of the trader. The Regulation can also apply to traders outside of the EU, they do not need to be established in the EU, they only have to offer the delivery of goods or offer services – if not online, they have to be received in a physical location where the trader operates – in a Member State of the EU.
2. Customers:
   1. a consumer – any natural person who is acting for purposes which are outside his or her trade, business, craft or profession – who is a national of, or has his or her place of residence in a Member State, or;
   2. an undertaking which has its place of establishment in a Member State, and receives a service or purchases a good, or seeks to do so, within the EU, for the sole purpose of end use.

The EU claims that this Regulation will benefit both customers and businesses. There will be a broader choice in services and goods. The Regulation is believed to stimulate growth and it would increase the possibility of customers to choose between different services and goods in the Single Market. There are four methods of geo-blocking that are – under certain circumstances – prohibited under this Regulation. In the next article these four methods of geo-blocking will be discussed.