Unjustified geographical blockages will be the main digital issue at the Competitiveness Council in Brussels on Monday 28 November. Ministers are expected to reach agreement in principle (general guidelines), although Luxembourg has already made it known that it will not back the compromise deal currently on the negotiating table (see EUROPE 11672).
A draft regulation unveiled at the end of May requires traders to make their services accessible to all consumers in the EU without discrimination in terms of price, sales or payment conditions (see EUROPE 11558), but it does not require traders to deliver their products to any country other than the one where they are registered in.
The main question at present is that of the applicable law. Does a company selling products or services online to a consumer living in another member state have to apply the law of the country of the seller or the country of the buyer? Luxembourg has the sympathy of the other Benelux countries, the Baltic States and Austria in its call for the law of the seller to apply.
The Slovak Presidency of the Council of the EU’s draft compromise suggests a case-by-case assessment, explaining that it is possible that the law of the consumer or the law of the seller shall apply under the Rome I Regulation on the right applicable to contractual obligations. The draft compromise says that the new rules will not stand in opposition to the Brussels I and Rome I Regulations, under which the law of the consumer applies. The presidency adds that defining redirection activities is crucial for demonstrating in which cases the law of the consumer cannot automatically apply.
This measure is unlikely to satisfy Luxembourg, which says that the new rules will not provide any added value since under these new rules, companies and small businesses would need to know the laws of each country so the new rules would compartmentalise the single market in practice rather than opening it up accoridng to a source close to the issue. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)