EEA EFTA Comment addressing geo-blocking

Published 10-11-2016
The EEA EFTA States issued today an EEA EFTA Comment addressing the European Commission’s proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on addressing geo-blocking and other forms of discrimination based on customers' nationality, place of residence or place of establishment within the internal market – COM(2016) 289.
The proposed legislation aims at ensuring that consumers seeking to buy products and services in another EU country, be it online or in person, are not discriminated against in terms of sales or payment conditions, unless this is objectively justified for reasons such as VAT or certain public interest legal provisions.
 
With this comment the EEA EFTA States welcome and support the proposal for a Regulation addressing geo-blocking and discrimination in the single market. The legitimacy of the single market is undermined when citizens encounter discrimination based on nationality and/or place of residence or establishment. The Regulation should thus have a wide scope.                 
 
The EEA EFTA States recommend amending the Commission proposal to give it a stronger impact in favour of European consumers. The EEA EFTA States propose simplifying the Regulation to make it easier to understand for citizens and businesses. To ensure that businesses have justifiable grounds for processing personal data, the EEA EFTA States suggest adding a reference to the Data Protection Directive. The EEA EFTA States also propose modifications to facilitate future widening of the mechanisms to provide assistance to consumers and to give the Regulation a wider application.
 
Read the the full text of the EEA EFTA Comment.
 

 

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