§4.2.10 Use of geo-localisation techniques

When shopping in/from another Member State, consumers are sometimes subject to outright refusals by traders to sell, or to price discrimination, based on the place of residence or nationality of the consumer. Such practices can take place online and when shopping over the counter. Traders may use geo-localisation techniques, e.g. on the basis of the consumer's IP address, residence address, country of issue of credit cards etc., to either deny the sale of a product to the consumer, to automatically reroute them to a local webstore or for price discrimination purposes. Traders may have different reasons for denying access to a product or to apply different prices based on geographical information, such as higher delivery cost or additional legal obligations for the trader. As regards the denial of sale or rerouting, according to Article 8(3) of the CRD, traders must inform consumers about delivery restrictions at the latest at the beginning of the ordering process. On the basis of Article 7(5) UCPD, this information requirement qualifies as ‘material’ under the UCPD. On the other hand, if a trader complies with the information requirement of Article 8(3) CRD, such denial of sale or rerouting is not an unfair commercial practice per se under the UCPD. However, according to the facts of the individual case, such practices could lead to unfair commercial practices. Such practices may also constitute an infringement of other areas of EU law. Since 3 December 2018, the Geo-Blocking Regulation (381) prohibits online traders to discriminate between EU customers based on their nationality, residence or establishment. The Commission issued detailed guidance on the regulation in its Questions & Answers document (382). For online services related to non-audiovisual works protected by copyright (such as e-books, video games, music and software), the non-discrimination provision – i.e. the obligation to allow foreign customers to access and benefit from the same offers as local customers – does not apply under the Regulation. However, other rules in the Geo-Blocking Regulation, such as those prohibiting the discriminatory blocking of access to online interfaces and re-routing without the customer's prior consent (Article 3) as well as discrimination for reasons related to payment (Article 5), do apply to the aforementioned services. In addition, Article 20 of the Services Directive obliges Member States to ensure that companies do not treat consumers differently on the basis of their place of residence or nationality, unless justified by objective criteria. Both laws concern the outright refusal to sell, including automatic re-routing, and the application of different prices taking place online or offline. Geo-blocking or filtering may also violate competition law (383). For example, on 20 January 2021, the Commission fined five video game publishers and one gaming platform for their geo-blocking practices (384).

← 4.2.9 · All articles · 4.2.11 →

Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-09-07