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EU Agrees To End Country-Specific Limits For Online Retailers (reuters.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: The European Union has agreed a plan obliging online retailers operating in the bloc to make electrical goods, concert tickets or car rental available to all EU consumers regardless of where they live. Putting an end to "geoblocking", whereby consumers in one EU country cannot buy a good or service sold online in another, has been a priority for the EU as it tries to create a digital single market with 24 legislative proposals. The agreement late on Monday between the European Parliament, the EU's 28 member states and the Commission will allow EU consumers to buy products and services online from any EU country. The agreement applies to e-commerce sites including Amazon and eBay.
As much as the EU heads try to fake it, the EU is not a single, contiguous market - there is a *huge* variation in what pricing the markets will bear between the "senior" economies of the UK (not as much an issue shortly), France, Germany etc and the "junior" markets of the eastern states, Spain, Portugal etc. This is why there is significant economic migration to the former countries from the latter - a lot of the money earned is sent back to the "junior" states to support families etc.
Removing the geoblocking means that companies will migrate pricing toward the higher paying markets, which means the "junior" markets will lose out as Amazon etc will no longer be able to offer lower "market bearing" pricing specifically for them - which means its going to have an overall negative effect on the ability of those nations populations to buy online.
However, consumers will still have to organize how to pick up a product if the company does not offer cross-border delivery.
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
Yeah. While they don't apply this to actual car purchases (read: not rentals), it still won't be a single market.
The fact cars are taxed differently when bought in different EU countries, yet are forced to pay many of taxes again when one person decides to move the car between countries in a more permanent fashion, especially when the move is closest to purchase date. Which is really awkward when you think that at the very least, emission taxes should be homogenous across the EU, which apparently they are NOT.
Currently, if you buy a car on another member of the EU, and you plan to bring that car to your country up to 6 months in of the purchase, you have to pay VAT over the car TWICE. Even if that car was purchased used. And when 6 months go by, you still have to pay a lot of taxes other than VAT for permanent legalization. Obviously due to these regulations (which are NOT very characteristic of a single market), things like same-model cars having upwards of 50% cost difference in across countries is pretty fucking common. It is actually one of the reasons why MANY in my country move to central Europe and work there for 2 to 10 years - specifically to amass salaries and expensive goods that are much more expensive in gross price but critically higher priced when local purchasing power is taken into account.
I actually have friends that have moved to a country for a year or two in order to purchase cars there, one for them, another for their parners, then proceeded to use special rules that ONLY apply to long-term migrants to bring the car with them on return "for free". They basically made 3 times their salary in the stay, and bought cars that cost 2 years of saving at half price which is pretty much another year of "proffit" when compared to being in the origin.
Well, but at least we can go back and forth freely and use cars in any country as we please without legal implications.