Comments of Róża Thun MEP and European Parliament's rapporteur on the trilogue negotiation on the geoblocking regulation

Commenting on the last trilogue negotiation with the Maltese Presidency on the geoblocking, Róża Thun MEP and European Parliament's rapporteur on the geoblocking regulation, said: 

"I am dissappointed that the Ministers of the Member States don’t respond to the expectations of the EU citizens. They defend protectionism and narrow interests instead of giving consumers access to goods and services from the entire EU, make use of fair competition and allow traders to profit from the market of 500 million consumers on our continent.

I really wonder if the citizens of Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden realize that their ministers act to maintain the geoblocking and discrimination against them on the single market.

The Parliament proposed to:

• ban passive sales restrictions (agreements between supplier and the trader that forces the latter to geoblock)
• give legal certainty for traders who sell cross-borders
• stop the discrimination when it comes to software, music, e-books and videogames (in the territories where the trader has all necessary rights and licenses)

The Council however blocked the agreement.

We agreed to resume work with the Estonian Presidency in a few days time aiming at achieving the tangible results for citizens and to focus on finding the solutions on following issues: 

• discrimination in digital services, such as e-books, music, video games and software,
• rules prohibiting passive sales restrictions
• review of this regulation

Citizens expect Europe to deliver in a concrete way. The single market must open for them with its goods and services and be more competitive globally."