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European Commission Proposes "Digital Single Market" and End To Geoblocking
An anonymous reader writes A new initiative from the European Commission proposes a reformed "single digital market", addressing a number of issues that it sees as obstructions to EU growth, including geoblocking — where services such as BBC's iPlayer are only available to IP addresses within the host country — and the high cost of parcel delivery and administration of disparate VAT rates across the member states. The ramifications of many of the proposals within the Digital Single Market project extend to non-EU corporations which have built their business model on the current isolationism of member state markets.
> And that has been getting worse with the EU... not better.
Can you give me some examples? Our family business has been importing and exporting goods (motor vehicles) from all over Europe for over 40 years, and I can tell you that things have improved GREATLY because of the European union. Just to give you an idea, when the business just started a motor vehicle imported from for example Italy could not be registered in other European countries without making alterations because regulations were so different. In addition all the paperwork that was required would easily take up several hours per vehicle im/exported.
While as an ex-pat, I would doubtless appreciate the opportunity to view BBC iPlayer content free of charge, without use of proxies, etc. - however, those *resident* in the UK are paying for this service, and not through choice either (mandatory TV licence)
I am not sure if my ability to view free content would be fair on those who have no choice but to pay for it - and when you get started on sports broadcasts (football, etc.) - you will be coming up against some very well-funded and powerful interest groups.
There are a lot of countries in europe that are not able to export their gods to other countries in europe for basically no reason.
Actually there is a very good reason for this. God exports between countries within Europe tended to involve lots of men with very pointy sticks and were usually rather unpleasant for anyone involved. This seems to have rather killed of the business in recent years.
The situation since new-year is absolutely horrendous. At January 1st, the VAT rules changed so that digital goods have to be taxed using the VAT rate of the buyer's location, and using the tax law of the buyer's home country. That is: a web shop of any size have to keep track of up to 80 different VAT rates, and the disparate tax law regarding VAT of 28 different EU countries in order to deduce which VAT rate and goods classification is applicable on each single transaction.
As a telling example: In several countries an e-book is only an e-book if it has an ISBN number (usually with a lower than standard VAT rate). Otherwise it's a digital service (with a higher VAT rate). In other countries it's a e-book as long it's a digital text. Or humorously enough, in the case of France: It's only taxed as an e-book if it doesn't have pornographic content, otherwise it's taxed as a digital service.
A good start would be what is proposed in the press release: Harmonized VAT rates and rules for digital goods.
The italian olive oil situation is a good example.
There are olive groves there that have been supplying oil to local villages as well as exporting for time out of mind. And new EU regulations are requiring that the oil go through all sorts of additional regulatory steps as well as package it in specific EU approved bottles.
The people in the area would typically just come by with a jug and fill it up with fresh oil as needed. But that is being made illegal.
The result is that the small growers must sell not directly to customers but to a big business bottling plants that are ultimately going to be the only legal way to sell the oil. Importing and exporting the oil previously was also not a big deal... but again, regulations.
Can I ask what country you are based in? Because the worst effects of this stuff hit the poorer and less developed countries the hardest. The richer and more developed countries if anything benefit from it. The trade controls have consequences for segments of the economy less capable of dealing with the red tape.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
That's the thing about harmonisation of disperse markets, for every simple example of a drawback someone will come up with an example of an improvement. Regulations typically don't just magically appear, but are rather a reaction (often a knee jerk reaction) to a specific problem. Your example is good because it highlights some serious issues at both sides. For instance the increased overhead now placed on farmers, but at the same time the increased assurance placed on the customers and the government that everything is done as it should be. I.e. you know the bottle was cleaned properly before you used it, the government knows the measured quantity of goods changing hands for taxation purposes. The poor may be hard done, but they are also the ones reasonably protected.
Now this may or may not be the case here, but in a general sense this is where these ideas often come from.
Or major producers are using lobbying for regulation as an opportunity to shut down smaller businesses, like they do in every industry all over the world.
Supporter of the +1 Over Dramatic mod option. In memory of apk.
In this specific case, I would rather think that the northern countries, especially Germany, wanted that their food safety regulations to also apply to the southern countries. "Somebody think of our poor consumers?" (They don't make olive oil in mid and northern Europe.)