Geo-blocking: Unjustified barrier to the digital single market or legitimate commercial practice?

A key plank in the Digital Market Strategy is described by the European Commission as “preventing unjustified geo-blocking”, and legislative proposals are planned for the first half of 2016 to address this practice. Online sellers use geo-blocking for commercial reasons to either deny access to websites and content based in other member states, re-route traffic to local websites or apply different prices. By limiting consumer opportunities and choice, geo-blocking is a significant cause of consumer dissatisfaction and fragmentation of the Internal Market.

This seminar will focus on territoriality issues regarding copyright in the audiovisual sector. Key questions for the seminar include:

• Can geo-blocking ever be justified, or are the plans on geo-blocking and copyright too cautious?
• Is geo-targeting a legitimate practice arising from commercial agreements between producers and distributors to segment the market, e.g in the cinema industry?
• Do geo-blocking restrictions infringe the rules of EU competition law?

Felice Simonelli, Researcher at CEPS : Geo-blocking in the audiovisual sector

Summary of the event

European Broadcasting Union, position paper on Copyright Licensing