International

´Geoblocking´ is the practice whereby internet-based retail outlets exclude purchasers from outside their own EU member state. The European Commission wants to put an end to this and is proposing a legal ban. Today the European Parliament reached agreement on its negotiating position, as the measure will be settled by what’s known as the co-decision procedure, under which the Council, which directly represents the member state governments, and the EP must agree on the final text. SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong is no defender of geo-blocking, but he fears that the proposed legal requirements could make life difficult for smaller shops. “Organisations representing small and medium-sized enterprises – SMEs in the jargon – are complaining that the rules are so complicated that in setting up a website you hardly know where you stand. This is especially true for shops serving a local market, such as a neighbourhood baker’s, which might run a website to inform local customers. All of a sudden such small traders could come in for unpleasant surprises and find themselves forced to offer their wares to people in other member states.” De Jong, however, has a solution. “Today we also reached agreement in principle on a supplementary ‘SME test’” – in other words, an assessment of the likely effects of the measure on smaller firms – “which will be negotiated in parallel with the negotiations on the measure as a whole.”