The EU Commission has prepared a proposal for a new EU regulation for adoption by the EU Parliament and the European Council.
The EU Commission sees as the legal basis above all the established aspiration of the establishment and functioning of the European internal market and the accompanying freedom to provide and use services across borders.
Many users of streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Video, Spotify or similar services with online content have a problem using the services when they go on holiday to other European countries. The services are then not available there for licensing reasons, as the service providers have only acquired or made available rights of use to the content in the respective home country of the using consumer. So-called "territorial licences" are issued here.
Since technological development and the resulting demand for cross-border use of online content will continue to advance in the future due to the increasing number of users of online services and the growing number of mobile devices, it is in the interest of many consumers to be able to use the online services they have paid for abroad.
In connection with the provision to consumers, the online services work with so-called geo-blocking, which blocks foreign IP addresses in which a country-specific identification number is present for use abroad. This enables the provider to recognise in which country the user of the online services is located and usually matches this with the billing address or other specific user data provided during registration. If the country code of the IP address does not match the user's address of residence, the consumer will have little chance of using the content abroad. This procedure makes sense because a so-called "territorial protection clause" has been contractually agreed between the service providers and the users/subscribers.
The EU Commission has now made the proposal to find a uniform regulation for the European internal market for the use of online content services. Here, the EU Commission points out that it is not possible for individual countries to make the services offered available across borders, as this is a cross-border problem, since e.g. copyrights and other property rights have also been standardised in various EU directives in the European Union.
As an additional supporting argument, the EU Commission also points out that roaming charges are getting closer and closer to being abolished; in April 2016, they are to be reduced to lower charges (€0.05 per call minute, €0.02 per SMS and €0.05 per MB data volume). In June 2017, roaming charges are to be abolished completely, so that users of the mobile internet will pay the same charges abroad as at home, without surcharges. This will also increase the demand for the online content of service providers enormously.
We will then inform you promptly about the entry into force of the EU Regulation or any changes to the above information.
Goldberg Attorneys at Law 2016
Communicated by Timo Möllers
E-mail: info@goldberg.de
