The geo-blocking regulation means If your business based in the European Union, the new geo-blocking regulation will affect you. In most cases, you're legally obliged to sell to the interested customers from EU member states. It also means that all your online forms have to be adaptable with placing and receiving orders from anywhere in the EU. However, there are a few details that every business owner there must necessarily check. It's not so long ago that the GDPR came into action and required adjustments to websites. It compels us to think the EU has got to be joking, not again! But there are a few advantages to a new regulation, not just for consumers but sellers too.
The geo-blocking regulation came into effect on 3rd December 2018. Geo-blocking is a crucial focus area of both the European Commission's E-commerce competition law sector inquiry and the Commission's Digital Single Market strategy. The focus of the latter is to emit barricades to online trade within the EU and to enhance the market. Geo-blocking attributes to practices used by online sellers that further leads to denial of access to websites from the other Member States The Regulation focuses on unilateral behavior of companies that is in sometimes could be discriminatory based on where a person is from, where his/her business is established.
Geo-blocking regulation and its prohibition; Any trader doing business in the related area must not refuse or limit customers' access to online interfaces because of their place of establishment. Redirecting a customer without seeking permission: The traders must seek consent from the customer before redirecting them based on their location. In the case where the customer agrees to be redirected, the trader must provide an open option to return to the original webpage. The EU believes that geo-blocking averts straight cross-border trade across the EU.
Significantly, the Regulations do not need traders to deliver goods to the member states. So conveniently, they are only required to deliver where they have a presence or if they are already delivering in a particular country. Companies are still permitted not to sell certain goods or services or to even apply different conditions for valid reasons that are not related to the location of the customer. Although traders are not compelled to keep goodwill prices across the European Union, However, the customers will be able to see the prices that are being charged in other member states, so there is a risk on heir shoulders which somehow drives them to set near or similar to the standardized price.
Author: Rishika Chhabra