On Thursday 20 September, the European Commission published a range of questions and answers relating to the implementation of regulation 2018/302 for ending unjustified geo-blocking. It will also publish an implementing regulation over the next few days for cross border parcel deliveries. These two papers will be presented to European ministers during the Competitive Council on 27 September.
The regulation on geo-blocking will apply from 3 December and will require traders to make their goods and services accessible to all EU consumers, without discrimination in terms of access, prices, sales and payment conditions. The “questions and answers” (45 pages long) update the first series published on 22 March. They clarify each article point by point. They also make a reference to 23 March 2020 and the revision clause for assessing whether the scope should be expanded to the audio-visual and transport domains and whether non-non-discrimination should be extended to e-books, for example. They also point out that the member states have until 3 December to appoint one or several regulation implementation bodies (in the knowledge that at this stage the Commission has not received any notifications in this respect).
It should also be pointed out that the Commission is expected to publish an implementing regulation in the next few days focusing on regulation 2018/644 relating to cross border parcel deliveries. This document lists the information in a form to service providers that they will have to send to national regulators. The paper is available at the following link: https://bit.ly/2ugBCTh. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)