BEUC, the European Consumers Association, has just launched a campaign against geo blocking. COMMUNIA has been using this term mainly in order to refer to the practice of limiting access to copyright protected content – such as films or music – to specific national markets. This prevents internet users from outside of that market to access the content in question which, in our opinion, is not coherent with the expectations of internet users and the idea of a EU Digital Single Market. However, the problem is not limited to access to works protected by copyright. As illustrated by the campaign video released by BEUC the idea of providing different services to people based on their nationality is fairly ridiculous:
Disclaimer: Playback of the embedded video establishes a connection to YouTube and may lead to data being collected by and shared with third parties. Proceed only if you agree.
You can find out more about the practice of geo-blocking and why it needs to end as soon as possible in this factsheet (pdf) and in BEUC’s factsheet on the issue. Needless to say we wholeheartedly agree with the analysis provided by BEUC. From the perspective of European internet users, ending these unfair business practices will be one of the key outcomes that the European legislator needs to achieve in order to deliver on the promise of a Digital Single Market.
