Evaluation of the Geo-blocking Regulation (debate)
Speaker: Anna CAVAZZINI (Germany, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance / Bündnis 90/Die Grünen)
Date: 2021-03-11

  Anna Cavazzini,  author. – Mr President, I would say to the Commissioner, imagine you live in the Czech Republic and you want to buy, say, a T—shirt on an online Italian marketplace, but you always get redirected to a Czech shop. Or imagine you want to pay for this T-shirt online, but your credit cards get refused again and again, simply because it has been issued in another country. Or, finally, imagine that you want to type in your address of delivery, your home address, but it is impossible because you live at the other side of the border. 
These are examples of unjustified geo—blocking and these are examples for discrimination based on your nationality or your place of residence. I would say this discrimination has no place in the EU internal market. The Geo—blocking Regulation of 2018 aims at fighting this discrimination. This is good. Now, we as consumers should be able to compare the availability and the prices of services and goods sold across the internal market. Now, we as consumers should have the possibility to buy goods and services on the same conditions all over the internal market. 
Coming back to the examples. If we book a ticket for a French museum on a French website, irrelevant of where we are, we shop under the same conditions online as if we were in France. So the Geo—blocking Regulation aims at eliminating discrimination, at preventing the referral to other websites without our consent, at making digital content available all over the EU – in short, at giving all consumers the same rights. By this, the Geo-blocking Regulation can be a very important cornerstone of the digital single market, of enhancing cross—border sales and of overcoming geographical restrictions. 
So only one and a half years after it entered into force, the Commission has evaluated its implementation. This is why we are here today. The evaluation shows some positive effects. For example, blocking access to websites or rerouting consumers to other websites has decreased massively. But it also shows that there is a lack of enforcement by most Member States. So Member States really have to step up their efforts in fighting unjustified geo—blocking. 
The report shows also that often enough goods are not offered online across borders. So the Commission’s report also considers the possible extension of the scope of the Geo—blocking Regulation, including with regard to copyright—protected content. This is highly relevant for consumers because streaming services so far have been excluded from the Geo—blocking Regulation, as we probably all know when we are trying to watch something in a different Member State. 
We as the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) expect national authorities and the Commission to work together in the framework of the consumer protection cooperation network to prevent any discrimination between EU consumers and to ensure adequate and effective implementation of the Geo—blocking Regulation. 
We as the IMCO Committee will support efforts to deepen the digital single market while maintaining high standards on the internal market without barriers or frictions for consumers. I look forward to the Commission’s further explanations and actions in this field. 
(Applause)