Today, the European Commission published the conclusions of its first short-term review of the 2018 Geo-blocking Regulation, which prohibits unjustified geographical restrictions in the sale of goods and services within the EU. https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/commission-publishes-its-short-term-review-geo-blocking-regulation The report analyses the first 18 months of implementation of the current Regulation, which has been applicable since December 2018, as well as the possible effects of the extension of its scope, including with regard to copyright-protected content services. The report’s main conclusions on its first period of implementation are that: Consumer awareness is good – 50% of consumers were aware of the new rules surveyed after just 3 months following the entry into force of the rules, but also expressed they wanted further information. The role of competent assistance and enforcement bodies of Member States is key to ensure the compliance of traders, with a high rate (above 50%) of amicable solutions being reached once traders were made aware of issues. A number of important geo-blocking obstacles have diminished; for example, there has been a stark reduction in barriers caused by location requirements, from 26.9% down to 14% of approximately 9000 websites surveyed. Such restrictions prevent users from attempting to register to foreign websites due to a postal address in another Member State, and is important because registration is a key stage of the online shopping process. A further decrease in restrictions that users faced when trying to access websites cross-border was reported (e.g. users were denied access or automatically rerouted), the remainder of which was residual (only 0.2% of websites blocking access). Even though the Regulation does not oblige traders to deliver cross-border, the increased access to cross-border websites provided by the Geo-blocking Regulation nevertheless increased the amount of purchases with delivery in the country of the customer (an increase of 1.6% in EU27 compared to 2015). One third of the approximately 9000 surveyed websites offered cross-border delivery. Other internal market measures, including administrative tools to facilitate compliance with cross-border VAT in e-commerce, which will enter into force from July 2021, and the harmonisation of consumer protection rules, which will enter into force in 2022, still need to materialise entirely before the full effects of the Geo-blocking Regulation can be observed. Therefore, the Commission will continue to monitor the application of the current Regulation, also through the Consumer Protection Cooperation Network, as well as these internal market initiatives. The Commission will also continue to raise awareness, notably through the European Consumer Centres.
