MEPs
beef up rules to ensure that buyers of goods or services from another
EU country are treated like local customers in a committee
vote on Tuesday.
The
draft law defines specific situations in which geo-blocking will not be
allowed. This means that online sellers will not be able
to discriminate against consumers elsewhere in the EU with regard to
general terms and conditions, including prices, on the basis of their
nationality, place of residence or even their temporary location, MEPs
added.
Treating EU buyers abroad like locals
Without paying more, buyers from another EU country than the trader would be able to:
-
buy goods (e.g. household appliances, clothes) even when
the trader does not deliver them in the consumer’s member state of
residence, if there is an option to collect the goods at an agreed
location in another EU
country (the proposal does not introduce an obligation to deliver
across the EU),
-
receive online
from the trader services not protected by copyright, such as cloud
services, firewalls, data warehousing, website hosting,
-
(added by
MEPs) receive e-books, e-music, games or software (i.e. non-audiovisual
copyrighted content) if the trader has the right or a licence to use
such content for the countries concerned), and
-
make a booking
outside the consumer’s place of residence (e.g. hotel stays, sports
events, car rental, music festival or leisure tickets).
Automatic
re-routing to another website without the consumer’s prior consent
would also be banned, expect if an EU or national provision,
e.g. related with minors, would make it necessary.
Movies and football matches not covered for now
Sectors
such as audiovisual services (including broadcasts of sports events
provided on the basis of exclusive territorial licenses),
or financial, transport, electronic communication or healthcare
services are excluded from the scope of the draft regulation for the
time being. However, the EU Commission must assess within three years of
its entry into force whether they should be covered
in the future, added the committee.
Quote
“Our
work aims at a gradual opening of the European market for consumers and
for traders by giving them clear rules. Consumers will have
better access to goods and services online and for traders it will be
less burdensome to sell to consumers from different member states”, said
Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee rapporteur Róża Thun
(EPP, PL).
Next steps
The
committee’s vote gives its negotiating team, led by Ms Thun, a mandate
to start three-way talks (trilogues) with the Council and
the Commission, with a view to reaching an agreement on the final law.
The mandate was approved by 31 votes to 2, with 1 abstention.
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