On 25 May 2016 the European Commission published a draft regulation on addressing geo-blocking and other forms of discrimination based on consumer’s nationality, place of residence or place of establishment within the EU[1].

The public consultation on this proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and European Council was opened on 23 June and will close on 18 July 2016.

The draft legislation aims at restricting traders from geo-blocking and similar practices by websites selling into the EU.

The legislative process is expected to take well into 2017, but will be immediately effective in all Member States of the EU once approved and adopted (no national implementing legislation will be required).

The draft regulation prohibits retailers to prevent customers from accessing websites based on their geographic origin. It does however not prohibit the rerouting of customers be it that the customer must have the option to choose whether to access the retailer’s original website or to be rerouted.

Geographic discrimination through the use of discriminatory terms and conditions is also prohibited. However, the draft regulation only prevents geo-blocking where the retailer would be required to arrange cross border delivery of goods (i.e. to the Member State in which the customer has its place of residence or establishment). Whereas businesses are not required to deliver cross border to another Member State, this prohibition is likely to have very little benefit to customers seeking to purchase physical goods from another Member State.

The draft regulation also prohibits discrimination on the basis of the means of online payments provided that such payments are made through electronic transactions via credit transfer or direct debit, can be verified with an authentication according the Payment Services Directive and payments are made in the currency accepted by the retailer.

Copyrighted digital content such as Netflix, Spotify, e-books etc. are carved out of the draft regulation. Providers of such content may continue to discriminate based on the customer’s geographic location.

Preventing unjustified geo-blocking is one of the actions of the European Commission’s Single Digital Market strategy adopted on 6 May 2015[2]

[1] COM (2016) 289 final

[2] COM (2015) 192 final