In recent years, we have witnessed a proliferation of new EU Member State measures and cases that seek to block the access of the public to specific internet content. These have been enacted at the Member State level, mainly in an effort to reduce online piracy. But little consideration has been given to their apparently limited effectiveness, or of the possible risk of overblocking, much less the costs imposed on network operators and service providers. The enactment of different and mutually inconsistent rules by different Member States has led to fragmentation and tension between these rules and EU guarantees of freedom of expression (as embodied for instance in the goals of the Open Internet Regulation).
This study seeks to provide an independent, evidence-based assessment of the economic costs and benefits of Member State website blocking laws and practices in the EU-27. It is inspired by recent Member State measures and case law that, in attempting to curb online piracy, require the blocking of web content in burdensome ways, while possibly missing the goal of preventing intellectual property violations.
