10 Amendments of José BLANCO LÓPEZ related to 2016/0152(COD)
Amendment 43 #
Proposal for a regulation
Title 1
Title 1
Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on addressing unjustified geo- blocking and other forms of discrimination based on customers' nationality, place of residence or place of establishment within the internal market and amending Regulation (EC) No 2006/2004 and Directive 2009/22/EC (Text with EEA relevance)
Amendment 47 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 1
Recital 1
(1) In order to realise the objective of ensuring good functioning of the internal market, as an area without internal frontiers in which the free movement of inter alia goods and services is ensured, it is not sufficient to abolish, as between Member States, only State barriers. Such abolition can be undermined by private parties putting in place obstacles inconsistent with internal market freedoms. That occurs where traders operating in one Member State block or limit the access to their online interfaces, such as websites and apps, of customers from other Member States wishing to engage in cross-border commercial transactions (a practice known as geo-blocking). It also occurs through other actions by certain traders involving the application of different general conditions of access to their goods and services with respect to such customers from other Member States, both online and offline. Whereas there may sometimes be objective justifications for such differential treatment, in other cases traders deny consumers wishing to engage in cross- border commercial transactions access to goods or services, or apply different conditions in this regard, for purely commercial reasons. According to analyses carried out, removing unjustified geo-blocking and other forms of discrimination based on customers’ nationality, place of residence or place of establishment within the internal market could contribute to a 1.1 % expansion in market size and an, on average, -0.5 % to -0.6 % fall in prices.
Amendment 57 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 3
Recital 3
(3) Pursuant to Article 20 of Directive 2006/123/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council17, Member States are to ensure that service providers established in the Union do not treat recipients of services differently on the basis of their nationality or place of residence. However, that provision has not been fully effective in combatting discrimination and it has not sufficiently reduced legal uncertainty, particularly because of the possibility to justify the differences in treatment for which it allows and the corresponding difficulties in enforcing it in practice. Moreover, unjustified geo-blocking and other forms of discrimination based on nationality, place of residence or place of establishment can also arise as a consequence of actions by traders established in third countries, which fall outside the scope of that Directive. _________________ 17 Directive 2006/123/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2006 on services in the internal market (OJ L 376, 27.12.2006, p. 36).
Amendment 62 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 5
Recital 5
(5) This Regulation aims at preventing discrimination based on customers' nationality, place of residence or place of establishment, including geo-blocking, in cross-border commercial transactions between traders and customers relating to the sales of goods and the provision of services within the Union; the activities referred to in Article 2(2) of Directive 2006/123/EC are excluded from the scope of its application. It seeks to address direct as well as indirect discrimination, thus also covering unjustified differences of treatment on the basis of other distinguishing criteria which lead to the same result as the application of criteria directly based on customers' nationality, place of residence or place of establishment. Such other criteria can be applied, in particular, on the basis of information indicating the physical location of customers, such as the IP address used when accessing an online interface, the address submitted for the delivery of goods, the choice of language made or the Member State where the customer's payment instrument has been issued.
Amendment 70 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 10
Recital 10
(10) This Regulation should not affect acts of Union law concerning judicial cooperation in civil matters, notably the provisions on the law applicable to contractual obligations and on jurisdiction set out in Regulations (EC) No 593/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council24 and (EU) 1215/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council25, including the application of those acts and provisions in individual cases. In particular, the mere fact that a trader acts in accordance with the provisions of this Regulation should not be construed as implying that he directs his activities to the consumer's Member State for the purpose of such application and should not, therefore, be read as an obligation to sell. _________________ 24 Regulation (EC) No 593/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 June 2008 on the law applicable to contractual obligations (Rome I) (OJ L 177, 4.7.2008, p. 6). 25 Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2012 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters (OJ L 351, 20.12.2012, p. 1).
Amendment 87 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 1
Recital 1
(1) In order to realise the objective of ensuring good functioning of the internal market, as an area without internal frontiers in which the free movement of inter alia goods and services is ensured, it is not sufficient to abolish, as between Member States, only State barriers. Such abolition can be undermined by private parties putting in place obstacles inconsistent with internal market freedoms. That occurs where traders operating in one Member State block or limit the access to their online interfaces, such as websites and apps, of customers from other Member States wishing to engage in cross-border commercial transactions (a practice known as geo-blocking). It also occurs through other actions by certain traders involving the application of different general conditions of access to their goods and services with respect to such customers from other Member States, both online and offline. Whereas there may sometimes be objective justifications for such differential treatment, in other cases traders deny consumers wishing to engage in cross- border commercial transactions access to goods or services, or apply different conditions in this regard, for purely commercial reasons. Studies have shown that removing unjustified geo-blocking and other forms of discrimination based on customers’ nationality, place of residence or place of establishment within the internal market could help the market grow by 1.1% and reduce prices by an average of between 0.5% and 0.6%.
Amendment 100 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 5
Recital 5
(5) This Regulation aims at preventing discrimination based on customers’ nationality, place of residence or place of establishment, including geo-blocking, in cross-border commercial transactions between traders and customers relating to the sales of goods and the provision of services within the Union; the activities referred to in Article 2(2) of Directive 2006/123/EC shall be excluded from the scope of its application. It seeks to address direct as well as indirect discrimination, thus also covering unjustified differences of treatment on the basis of other distinguishing criteria which lead to the same result as the application of criteria directly based on customers’ nationality, place of residence or place of establishment. Such other criteria can be applied, in particular, on the basis of information indicating the physical location of customers, such as the IP address used when accessing an online interface, the address submitted for the delivery of goods, the choice language made or the Member State where the customer’s payment instrument has been issued.
Amendment 113 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 1 – paragraph 5
Article 1 – paragraph 5
5. This Regulation shall not affect acts of Union law concerning judicial cooperation in civil matters. Compliance with this Regulation shall not be construed as implying that a trader directs his or her activities to the Member State where the consumer has the habitual residence or domicile within the meaning of point (b) of Article 6(1) of Regulation (EC) No 593/2008 and point (c) of Article 17(1) of Regulation (EU) 1215/2012. The mere fact that a trader guarantees access to his online interface irrespective of the customer’s nationality or place of residence shall not be construed as the trader directing his business of selling goods or providing services at the Member State in which the customer resides, unless there are additional factors proving the trader’s intention of directing his business activities at said Member State.
Amendment 118 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 2 – paragraph 2 – point e
Article 2 – paragraph 2 – point e
(e) 'online interface' means any software, including a website, or some part thereof, and applications, operated by or on behalf of a trader, which serves to give customers access to the trader's goods or services with a view to engaging in a commercial transaction with respect to those goods or services;
Amendment 124 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 3 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 2
Article 3 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 2
In the event of such redirection with the customer's explicit consent, the original version of the online interface which the customer initially sought to access shall remain easily accessible for that customer.