Geo-blocking

Consumers frequently used to be blocked from buying products or services online from a website in another EU country than their own. For example, the website might have refused to serve consumers from a different country, re-routed customers to local websites with different prices, or prevented the consumer from using their bank card because it was registered in a different EU country.

From a consumer perspective, this was unfair and discriminatory given that the EU area is a Single Market and consumers should be able to shop around, particularly if a service is not available in their country. BEUC set out to show decision-makers how absurd geo-blocking could be if it was applied in the real world, and that there was therefore no reason for it in the online world. The result is the video below.

Partly as a result of our awareness-raising action, the EU decided to pass legislation. Since December 2018, e-commerce merchants in the EU are no longer allowed to block consumers from other EU countries from purchasing items on their website. Thanks to this ‘ban on geo-blocking’, consumers are able to take advantage of a wider choice and the possibility to access the best deals regardless of where they are.

In practice, the following methods – among others – are be prohibited:

• Consumers can no longer be blocked from purchasing goods on a website because of their nationality or place of residence. (However, traders are not obliged to deliver the goods to the consumer’s home address.)
• Consumers cannot be refused payment by an e-commerce shop just because they want to pay with a foreign bank card.
• Online merchants are no longer allowed to automatically re-route foreign consumers to a website in the consumer’s country (which might offer a less beneficial deal).