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What is unjustified geo-blocking?
Discrimination between EU customers to segment markets along national borders and to increase profits to the detriment of foreign customers, is considered as unjustified geo-blocking.
The regulation
The geo-blocking regulation defines three specific situations of unjustified geo-blocking:
The sale of goods without physical delivery
Example: A Belgian customer wishes to buy a refrigerator and finds the best deal on a German website. The customer will be entitled to order the product and collect it at the trader's premises or organise delivery himself to his home.
The sale of electronically supplied services
Example: A Bulgarian consumer wishes to buy hosting services for her website from a Spanish company. She will now have access to the service, can register and buy this service without having to pay additional fees compared to a Spanish consumer.
The sale of services provided in a specific physical location
Example: An Italian family visits a French theme park and wishes to take advantage of a family discount on the price of the entry tickets. The discounted price will be available for the Italian family.
There are also justified reasons for traders not to sell cross-border. Such as the need to register at a tax authority in the country of destination, higher shipping costs or costs arising from the application of foreign consumer law. While outside barriers create additional complications and extra costs for the trader, differences in the treatment of customers are based on objective criteria.
For better understanding of the regulation, the Commission issued a detailed Questions & Answers document and a MEMO.
This regulation was part of an e-commerce package together with a legislative proposal on cross-border parcel delivery services and a legislative proposal to strengthen enforcement of consumers' rights.
First Report
Within two years after the entry into force of the new rules, the Commission had to carry out a first evaluation of their impact on the internal market.
The Commission included in its evaluation an assessment of the scope of the rules. This included possible application of the new rules to certain electronically supplied services which offer copyright-protected content such as music, e-books, software and online games, as well as of services in sectors such as transport and audio-visual.
The Report was adopted on 30 November 2020.
Read the main conclusions of the evaluation report
The Commission will continue monitoring data and evidence related to the application of the Geo-blocking Regulation and invites all stakeholders and citizens to provide feedback via e-mail on the Report and the accompanying evidence, also in view of the possible long-term effects of the COVID-19 on cross-border commerce.
Useful links
- First evaluation report (.pdf)
- Staff Working Document part 1 (.pdf) - part 2 (.pdf)
- Digibyte: Commission publishes its short-term review of the Geo-blocking Regulation
- 10 key features of Regulation 2018/302
- Questions and answers on Regulation 2018/302 (available in the following languages: BG, CS, DA, DE, EL, EN, ES, ET, FI, FR, HR, HU, IT, LT, LV, MT, NL, PL, PT, RO, SK, SL, SV) and Factsheet related to Regulation 2018/302
- Regulation (EU) 2018/302 on addressing unjustified geo-blocking and other forms of discrimination based on customers' nationality, place of residence or place of establishment within the internal market
Implementation of geo-blocking by Member States
Related Content
Big Picture
The European Commission aims to foster an environment where online platforms thrive, treat users fairly and take action to limit the spread of illegal content.
Dig deeper
This page gives state of play of the implementation of the Geoblocking in Greece, and the local points of contact.
This page gives state of play of the implementation of the Geoblocking in Estonia, and the local points of contact.
This page gives state of play of the implementation of the Geoblocking in Hungary, and the local points of contact.
This page gives state of play of the implementation of the Geoblocking in Denmark, and the local points of contact.
This page gives state of play of the implementation of the Geoblocking in the Netherlands, and the local points of contact.
This page gives state of play of the implementation of the Geoblocking in Latvia, and the local points of contact.
This page gives state of play of the implementation of the Geoblocking in Austria, and the local points of contact.
This page gives state of play of the implementation of the Geoblocking in Belgium, and the local points of contact.
This page gives state of play of the implementation of the Geoblocking in Bulgaria, and the local points of contact.
This page gives state of play of the implementation of the Geoblocking in Cyprus, and the local points of contact.
This page gives state of play of the implementation of the Geoblocking in the Czech Republic, and the local points of contact.
This page gives state of play of the implementation of the Geoblocking in Germany, and the local points of contact.
This page gives state of play of the implementation of the Geoblocking in Finland, and the local points of contact.
This page gives the state of play of the implementation of the Geoblocking in France, and the local points of contact.
This page gives state of play of the implementation of the Geoblocking in Croatia, and the local points of contact.
This page gives state of play of the implementation of the Geoblocking in Ireland, and the local points of contact.
This page gives state of play of the implementation of the Geoblocking in Italy, and the local points of contact.
This page gives state of play of the implementation of the Geoblocking in Lithuania, and the local points of contact.
This page gives state of play of the implementation of the Geoblocking in Luxembourg, and the local points of contact.
This page gives state of play of the implementation of the Geoblocking in Malta, and the local points of contact.
This page gives state of play of the implementation of the Geoblocking in Poland, and the local points of contact.
This page gives state of play of the implementation of the Geoblocking in Portugal, and the local points of contact.
This page gives state of play of the implementation of the Geoblocking in Romania, and the local points of contact.
This page gives state of play of the implementation of the Geoblocking in Sweden, and the local points of contact.
This page gives state of play of the implementation of the Geoblocking in Slovenia, and the local points of contact.
This page gives state of play of the implementation of the Geoblocking in Slovakia, and the local points of contact.
This page gives state of play of the implementation of the Geoblocking in Spain, and the local points of contact.
See Also
The European Commission adopted a recommendation on measures to effectively tackle illegal content online.
The European Commission promotes fairness and transparency for businesses on online platforms.
The EU Observatory on the Online Platform Economy monitors and analyses the online platform economy, supporting the Commission in policy-making.