Brussels, 18/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - The Disneyland Paris theme park has brought its pricing policy into line with European law, Commission internal market spokesperson Lucia Caudet announced on Monday 18 April, confirming the information given at the weekend by the daily newspaper The Financial Times.
The Commission has had its sights trained on the globally-known French-based theme park since July of last year, following revelations on its pricing policies that discriminated on the basis of which country clients came from (see EUROPE 11369). Following constructive dialogue, Disneyland Paris has undertaken to observe the principle of non-discrimination set out in Article 20 of the services directive (2006/123/EC) and the SEPA regulation (on the single European payment area).
Changes apply in two areas. Firstly, discounts for annual subscriptions, initially only available to those with bank accounts located in France, will be extended to all nationals who have a bank account in any of the member states, said Johannes Kleis, head of communications at the European consumers' organisation BEUC. Secondly, consumers in all member states will be able to take advantage of promotions offered in any other member state: for example, a person resident in Germany could take advantage of offers available on the Belgian website of Disneyland Paris.
As part of the single market strategy, the Commission is expected to bring forward a legislative initiative before the summer to tackle geo-blocking (see EUROPE 11498). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)