The S&D Group has welcomed the agreement reached yesterday between the Parliament, Commission and Council on new rules that would prevent geo-blocking of online content in the EU.

S&D Group vice-president responsible for the digital union, Josef Weidenholzer MEP, said:

“This agreement will mean that companies can no longer block consumers accessing or purchasing from their websites just because they are in a different EU member state. This will give EU citizens access to a wider range of goods and services, and removes another barrier to a truly digital European Union. Ending geo-blocking will mean fewer irritating messages telling you that content is not available in your country or seeing wildly different prices if you are on the Polish or Spanish version of an e-store."

Virginie Rozière MEP, S&D Group spokesperson for the report on geo-blocking, added:

“Thanks to pressure from the European Parliament, consumers in the EU will be able to get the best deals from any EU country when doing their Christmas shopping online next year. This will help increase customer choice and also make sure that companies are not ripping people off by charging much more in one country than another. S&D MEPs are fighting hard to ensure that we have the same rules for both the online and offline world. We cannot allow the internet to be a lawless zone.”