December 2018 came with great news for EU e-commerce, as the new regulation putting an end to geoblocking on the Internet came into force.
Shopping trends continue to move towards the digital sphere and the European Union wants to pave the way for e-commerce in order to promote its growth in the coming years.
What does this change mean?
From now on, all member states of the European Union will enjoy the same conditions when shopping online and searching content on the Internet. The aim of this regulation is to create a single market for Europe, so that the price of goods and services is the same for all member states.
Equal prices for all states
With the entry into force of the regulations removing geoblocking, the possibility of adapting the price of a service depending on the location of the customer or user disappears.
Therefore, any EU citizen will now be able to purchase goods and services from any Member State at a unified price.
URLs and copyright
Another consequence of the end of geoblocking will be the possibility to browse websites in any EU country. Until now, geoblocking redirected users to their corresponding site depending on their location, but with the new regulations it will be possible to browse any website from any location.
Copyright-protected content is an exception, as each member state has specific regulations and removing geoblocking from this type of content would directly affect the enforcement of these regulations.
Consequences
With barely a month in force, it is still too early to glimpse the first changes. However, the new regulation is expected to boost e-commerce in the European Union, as it provides users with a greater freedom of purchase as part of what the EU claims will become a single market for Europe.
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