EU Lawmakers Include Spotify and iTunes In Geoblocking Ban (reuters.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: European Union lawmakers voted on Tuesday to ban online retailers from treating consumers differently depending on where they live and expanded their proposed law to include music streaming services such as Spotify and Apple's iTunes. Ending so-called geoblocking is a priority for the European Commission as it tries to create a single market for digital services across the 28-nation bloc, but many industries argue that they tailor their prices to specific domestic markets. The proposal, which will apply to e-commerce websites such as Amazon, Zalando and eBay, as well as for services provided in a specific location like car rental, forbids online retailers from automatically re-routing customers to their domestic website without their consent. In a blow for the book publishing and music industries, European Parliament members voted to include copyright-protected content such as music, games, software and e-books in the law. That would mean music streaming services such as Spotify and iTunes would not be able to prevent, for example, a French customer buying a cheaper subscription in Croatia, if they have the required rights.

Comments

Good or bad for customers?

[Anonymous Coward]

Absent the ability to "adjust" for maximum profit in each region, now an average price is expensive for at least half the countries in the EU.

Re:Good or bad for customers?

[Anonymous Coward]

Or perhaps the real market price will be found? The EU is working being a common market, where it started. Income and opportunities equally paid across the block.
Imagine Amazon selling a product in California at higher prices just because we manage our economy better than Alabama? People in Alabama should ascribe and work to a better life like a Californian.

Re:Good or bad for customers?

[Cryacin]

At least in the sort of context we're talking about here, the "real market price" you mentioned is what someone is prepared to pay for something, no more and no less.

When the price of goods divorces entirely from the cost to produce them, the pricing model turns to "extraction". Just you wait until Amazon wins the pricing war...

Maximize profits

[DidgetMaster]

The holy grail for anyone selling anything, is the ability to charge the customer, not based on the value of the product or service, but rather on the customer's ability to pay. In the old days, this was accomplished by creating barriers for the movement of goods and services. A drug company could charge someone in rural Mexico a completely different price for a pill than they could charge someone in New York City because is was very hard for the more affluent customer to realize that it was available elsewhere for cheaper. Some goes for DVDs, books, software, and just about everything else. Now with the internet, anyone can order just about anything from anywhere. Those artificial market barriers have been broken down. This threatens the profit margins of many companies.

Re:Maximize profits

[Baron_Yam]

I have to admit, the first time I ordered something direct from China I was a bit worried I'd never see a product and the bank would call me about fraudulent activity on my card.

No such worries now. When I'm getting the same product (literally) direct from the factory in China instead of having it go through a local retailer, I pay less than 1/3 the price. Not even Wal-Mart seems able to compete, given the last price comparison I did had them demanding 5x what an AliExpress vendor was selling a comparable product for.

Canada lost some wealth and China gained some, and in the meantime I get to live as if I were a bit wealthier than I am.

Lowering trade barriers globally allows the common consumer some of the same freedom the 1% have had to themselves until now - purchasing what they want from where they want and screw national borders.

In the long run, this will result in equalization of standard of living around the globe - so long as we have the same social support systems and the same expectations of our local governments. But with wealth will come education and power, at least to some degree, and we'll see social standards equalize as well. Since we're all human, I don't really have a problem with leveling the playing field, so long as it happens slowly enough it doesn't disrupt my life on noticeable timescales.

Re:Maximize profits

[Baron_Yam]

If I'm going to spend extra just to keep money in the country, I'd rather it be taxed from me and redistributed as welfare rather than charged as a premium on products handled by a make-work project.

With welfare you're not enriching the already-rich at the top of the corporate structure, so you're giving much more efficiently to the people who need it.

Re:Maximize profits

[AmiMoJo]

Cheap products from China has worked well in Japan. The "one price" shops (like dollar stores) are really good quality. The Japanese companies compete by innovating like crazy in every area. Better quality, new styles, better service, new features, new brands, new ideas. It's exciting.

That's what we need to do. Forget protectionism. Compete and win. Distance is still a factor, especially for service and ability to react to local market conditions like fashion.

Re:here in the USofA

[Anonymous Coward]

So mindful. California makes fuel. Exporting it someplace else adds costs. Sending it to Hawaii adds cost that California does not have. Beside USofA? You Sof Ah; retard.
The price of fuel in the Antarctic is high too. Transport and storage costs. Getting a few pounds of fuel in orbit to keep a satellite in place is quite pricey.
Music, putting it on a wire and downloading it in Croatia or Norway from the same server in France really doesn't add to the delivery cost; the end user pays for his data rate. So before you add your foolish comments stop, detail why it should cost more or less in one location. Then speak of it as the reason the prices should not be equal.

What does this do to content?

[damnbunni]

If digital retailers are not allowed to handle different regions differently:

Does this mean GOG.com and Steam will be allowed to sell video games with Nazis in them with Germany, or does it mean the German ban on Nazis in media is now effectively EU-wide?

Re:What does this do to content?

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

It seems unlikely that EU law will prevent a vendor from selling something at all in selective member states if there is a good reason not to. We looked into this issue when the EU VAT mess was the big news a couple of years ago, fearful that some sort of anti-discrimination provisions would say otherwise. The experts made some straightforward arguments that, for example, declining to sell to customers elsewhere in the EU would be OK if the costs of operating the new tax scheme were prohibitive, because that would be a strictly commercial decision. Presumably complying with the law of the land would also be considered an acceptable basis for making such a decision.

Re:What does this do to content?

[AmiMoJo]

They have to obey local laws. What has to be the same is pricing. If someone uses their freedom of movement rights to move from one county to another they must be able to take their services with them too, so no region locking between different parts of the EEA.

In theory a French person could buy a game with Nazis in France and then move to Germany with it. I don't know enough about German law to say what would happen - I suspect nothing as it's selling which is illegal, not ownership.

Good

[sexconker]

This is what happens when you to to exploit the "global economy". It bites back.

Why would anyone pay the sucker price when they can walk across the street and get the same exact thing for much less?
A game, movie, song, etc. isn't worth more based on where it's sold. I'm sick of paying full price for such things while people in Asia and Russia pay pennies on the dollar. (Though I'm glad I'm paying tons more like people in Australia and South America are.) If you can sell the game to millions in China/Russia/etc. for X, I'm going to seek to pay no more than X as well.

I mean, what's the worst that can happen to me? You region lock your shit? I'll just crack it or use a VPN. You jack up the prices in Russia/wherever? You're not going to jack them up past the US price, so it's still a net win for me.

Ebay is a bit of an odd one.

[blackest_k]

I live in Ireland and my natural Ebay site is ebay.ie but I can also use ebay.co.uk and presumably other ebay sites as well. The price is the same regardless of site pretty much.
(You do get venders that sell a product for a price but in different currencies e.g $10 or euro 10) Australian Dollars is almost always cheapest.

Where there is a big difference is on which Ebay Site you pay for the items on. If I pay on ebay.co.uk then i get buyer protection and a right to return within 14 days while if I buy on ebay.ie I don't. Sometimes that matters.

Ever since I bought an old macbook which died 3 days after receiving it and getting told by ebay to take it up with paypal who sided with the seller I now use the ebay.co.uk checkout rather than the ebay.ie one (if i had done that with that mac which came from the uk I would have got my money back from the seller).

It also pays to shop around with amazon too, there is .co.uk .de .es .fr and often there is a price difference between sites for the same item from the same seller and if it's fulfilled by amazon tends to ship from the same warehouse! Generally it's a better move for me to buy from a euro using amazon site than the uk site since the amazon checkout will give me a lousy exchange rate buying in euro's for something priced in sterling. Spain tends to have the best prices, Germany the best stock levels. My German and Spanish language skills pretty much zero but google translate handles that problem.

The best place to ship from is Germany best priced shipping. Brexit has made a pretty big difference too. UK prices had got pretty poor over the last few years but the devaluing of Sterling now makes buying from the UK pretty competitive. It's kind of like they have an ongoing 20% off sale. Guess better enjoy that while I can because when the actual exit comes. They are likely to get expensive to buy from with Customs adding Duty and VAT...