The European Parliament’s legal affairs committee today backed new measures that will ensure that users of online content will have access to it wherever they are in Europe.
The S&D Group MEP responsible for the portability file, Dietmar Köster, said:
“This finally updates our rules for the 21st Century. Our view has always been that content purchased online should be treated in the same way as you would a physical item. You would not buy a book that suddenly would not open or a CD that stopped playing when you crossed into another country. These new rules ensure that this is now also true for their digital equivalents. Anyone now travelling, working or studying in another EU country will have access to all the content that they have purchased at home.
“The S&D Group has fought hard to ensure that these rules have no time limitation so that not only tourists, but also students on an Erasmus term or people working abroad, can benefit from these rules. We also ensured that these cannot be superseded by contractual provisions – so that companies cannot find a way of getting round them.
“Although we believe that verification of where a user’s member state of residence could be done without checking IP addresses, we are pleased that we have secured many provisions that will help a user’s privacy. We have ensured that service providers cannot geolocate, track or profile users, and the data they verify cannot be stored.
“Overall, consumers are the ones that will profit most from this regulation, as they gained much more freedom to access. Furthermore it is a step forward to the creation of a truly European Digital Single Market.”
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