1. The purpose of this Regulation is to contribute to the proper functioning of the internal market by preventing unjustified geo-blocking and other forms of discrimination based, directly or indirectly, on the customers' nationality, place of residence or place of establishment, including by further clarifying certain situations where different treatment cannot be justified under Article 20(2) of Directive 2006/123/EC.
2. This Regulation does not apply to purely internal situations, where all the relevant elements of the transaction are confined within one single Member State.
3. This Regulation does not apply to the activities referred to in Article 2(2) of Directive 2006/123/EC.
4. This Regulation shall be without prejudice to the rules applicable to the field of taxation.
5. This Regulation shall not affect the rules applicable in the field of copyright and neighbouring rights, notably the rules provided for in Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (22).
6. This Regulation shall be without prejudice to Union law concerning judicial cooperation in civil matters. Compliance with this Regulation shall not be construed as implying that a trader directs activities to the Member State of the consumer's 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) No 1215/2012. In particular, where a trader, acting in accordance with Articles 3, 4 and 5 of this Regulation, does not block or limit consumers' access to an online interface, does not redirect consumers to a version of an online interface based on their nationality or place of residence that is different from the online interface to which the consumers first sought access, does not apply different general conditions of access when selling goods or providing services in situations laid down in this Regulation, or accepts payment instruments issued in another Member State on a non-discriminatory basis, that trader shall not be, on those grounds alone, considered to be directing activities to the Member State where the consumer has the habitual residence or domicile. Nor shall that trader, on those grounds alone, be considered to be directing activities to the Member State of the consumer's habitual residence or domicile, where the trader provides information and assistance to the consumer after the conclusion of a contract that has resulted from the trader's compliance with this Regulation.
7. Article 20(2) of Directive 2006/123/EC shall apply to the extent that this Regulation does not lay down more specific provisions.
Article 2 -
Definitions
For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions apply:
(1)
‘electronically supplied services’ means services which are delivered over the internet or an electronic network and the nature of which renders their supply essentially automated and involving minimal human intervention, and impossible to ensure in the absence of information technology;
(2)
‘interchange fee’ means interchange fee as defined in point (10) of Article 2 of Regulation (EU) 2015/751;
(3)
‘card-based payment instrument’ means card-based payment instrument as defined in point (20) of Article 2 of Regulation (EU) 2015/751;
(4)
‘payment brand’ means payment brand as defined in point (30) of Article 2 of Regulation (EU) 2015/751;
(5)
‘payment transaction’ means payment transaction as defined in point (5) of Article 4 of Directive (EU) 2015/2366;
(6)
‘payment service’ means payment service as defined in point (3) of Article 4 of Directive (EU) 2015/2366;
(7)
‘payment service provider’ means payment service provider as defined in point (11) of Article 4 of Directive (EU) 2015/2366;
(8)
‘payment account’ means payment account as defined in point (12) of Article 4 of Directive (EU) 2015/2366;
(9)
‘payment instrument’ means payment instrument as defined in point (14) of Article 4 of Directive (EU) 2015/2366;
(10)
‘direct debit’ means direct debit as defined in point (23) of Article 4 of Directive (EU) 2015/2366;
(11)
‘credit transfer’ means credit transfer as defined in point (24) of Article 4 of Directive (EU) 2015/2366;
(12)
‘consumer’ means any natural person who is acting for purposes which are outside his or her trade, business, craft or profession;
(13)
‘customer’ means a consumer who is a national of, or has his or her place of residence in, a Member State, or an undertaking which has its place of establishment in a Member State, and receives a service or purchases a good, or seeks to do so, within the Union, for the sole purpose of end use;
(14)
‘general conditions of access’ means all terms, conditions and other information, including net sale prices, regulating the access of customers to goods or services offered for sale by a trader, which are set, applied and made available to the public at large by or on behalf of the trader and which apply in the absence of an individually negotiated agreement between the trader and the customer;
(15)
‘goods’ means any tangible movable item, with the exception of items sold by way of execution or otherwise by authority of law;
(16)
‘online interface’ means any software, including a website or a part thereof and applications, including mobile 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 transaction with respect to those goods or services;
(17)
‘service’ means any self-employed economic activity, normally provided for remuneration, as referred to in Article 57 TFEU;
(18)
‘trader’ means any natural person or any legal person, irrespective of whether privately or publicly owned, who is acting, including through any other person acting in the name or on behalf of the trader, for purposes relating to the trade, business, craft or profession of the trader.
Article 3 -
Access to online interfaces
1. A trader shall not, through the use of technological measures or otherwise, block or limit a customer's access to the trader's online interface for reasons related to the customer's nationality, place of residence or place of establishment.
2. A trader shall not, for reasons related to a customer's nationality, place of residence or place of establishment, redirect that customer to a version of the trader's online interface that is different from the online interface to which the customer initially sought access, by virtue of its layout, use of language or other characteristics that make it specific to customers with a particular nationality, place of residence or place of establishment, unless the customer has explicitly consented to such redirection.
In the event of redirection with the customer's explicit consent, the version of the trader's online interface to which the customer initially sought access shall remain easily accessible to that customer.
3. The prohibitions set out in paragraphs 1 and 2 shall not apply where the blocking or limitation of access, or the redirection is necessary in order to ensure compliance with a legal requirement laid down in Union law, or in the laws of a Member State in accordance with Union law, to which the trader's activities are subject.
In such instances, the trader shall provide a clear and specific explanation to customers regarding the reasons why the blocking or limitation of access, or the redirection is necessary in order to ensure such compliance. That explanation shall be given in the language of the online interface that the customer initially sought to access.
Article 4 -
Access to goods or services
1. A trader shall not apply different general conditions of access to goods or services, for reasons related to a customer's nationality, place of residence or place of establishment, where the customer seeks to:
(a)
buy goods from a trader and either those goods are delivered to a location in a Member State to which the trader offers delivery in the general conditions of access or those goods are collected at a location agreed upon between the trader and the customer in a Member State in which the trader offers such an option in the general conditions of access;
(b)
receive electronically supplied services from the trader, other than services the main feature of which is the provision of access to and use of copyright protected works or other protected subject matter, including the selling of copyright protected works or protected subject matter in an intangible form;
(c)
receive services from a trader, other than electronically supplied services, in a physical location within the territory of a Member State where the trader operates.
2. The prohibition set out in paragraph 1 shall not prevent traders from offering general conditions of access, including net sale prices, which differ between Member States or within a Member State and which are offered to customers on a specific territory or to specific groups of customers on a non-discriminatory basis.
3. Mere compliance with the prohibition set out in paragraph 1 does not, in itself, mean that a trader is under an obligation to comply with non-contractual national legal requirements relating to the respective goods and services of the Member State of the customer or to inform customers about those requirements.
4. The prohibition set out in point (b) of paragraph 1 shall not apply to traders that are exempted from VAT on the basis of the provisions of Chapter 1 of Title XII of Directive 2006/112/EC.
5. The prohibition set out in paragraph 1 shall not apply in so far as a specific provision laid down in Union law, or in the laws of Member States in accordance with Union law, prevents the trader from selling the goods or providing the services to certain customers or to customers in certain territories.
With respect to the sale of books, the prohibition set out in paragraph 1 shall not prevent traders from applying different prices to customers in certain territories in so far as they are required to do so under the laws of Member States in accordance with Union law.
Article 5 -
Non-discrimination for reasons related to payment
1. A trader shall not, within the range of means of payment accepted by the trader, apply, for reasons related to a customer's nationality, place of residence or place of establishment, the location of the payment account, the place of establishment of the payment service provider or the place of issue of the payment instrument within the Union, different conditions for a payment transaction, where:
(a)
the payment transaction is made through an electronic transaction by credit transfer, direct debit or a card-based payment instrument within the same payment brand and category;
(b)
authentication requirements are fulfilled pursuant to Directive (EU) 2015/2366; and
(c)
the payment transactions are in a currency that the trader accepts.
2. Where justified by objective reasons, the prohibition set out in paragraph 1 shall not prevent the trader from withholding the delivery of the goods or the provision of the service, until the trader has received confirmation that the payment transaction has been properly initiated.
3. The prohibition set out in paragraph 1 shall not prevent the trader from requesting charges for the use of a card-based payment instrument for which interchange fees are not regulated under Chapter II of Regulation (EU) 2015/751 and for those payment services to which Regulation (EU) No 260/2012 does not apply, unless the prohibition or limitation of the right to request charges for the use of payment instruments, in accordance with Article 62(5) of Directive (EU) 2015/2366, has been introduced in the law of the Member State to which the trader's operation is subject. Those charges shall not exceed the direct costs borne by the trader for the use of the payment instrument.
Article 6 -
Agreements on passive sales
1. Without prejudice to Regulation (EU) No 330/2010 and Article 101 TFEU, this Regulation shall not affect agreements restricting active sales within the meaning of Regulation (EU) No 330/2010 or agreements restricting passive sales within the meaning of Regulation (EU) No 330/2010 that concern transactions falling outside the scope of the prohibitions laid down in Articles 3, 4 and 5 of this Regulation.
2. Provisions of agreements imposing obligations on traders, in respect of passive sales within the meaning of Regulation (EU) No 330/2010, to act in violation of the prohibitions laid down in Articles 3, 4 and 5 of this Regulation shall be automatically void.
Article 7 -
Enforcement
1. Each Member State shall designate a body or bodies responsible for adequate and effective enforcement of this Regulation.
2. Member States shall lay down the rules setting out the measures applicable to infringements of the provisions of this Regulation and shall ensure that they are implemented. The measures provided for shall be effective, proportionate and dissuasive.
3. The measures referred to in paragraph 2 shall be communicated to the Commission and made publicly available on the Commission's website.
Article 8 -
Assistance to consumers
Each Member State shall designate a body or bodies responsible for providing practical assistance to consumers in the case of a dispute between a consumer and a trader arising from the application of this Regulation.
Article 9 -
Review clause
1. By 23 March 2020 and every five years thereafter, the Commission shall report on the evaluation of this Regulation to the European Parliament, the Council and the European Economic and Social Committee. In doing so, the Commission shall take into account the overall impact of the Regulation on the internal market and cross-border e-commerce, including, in particular, the potential additional administrative and financial burden for traders stemming from the existence of different applicable regulatory consumer contract law regimes. That report shall, where necessary, be accompanied by a proposal for an amendment of this Regulation, in light of legal, technical and economic developments.
2. The first evaluation referred to in paragraph 1 shall be carried out, in particular, with a view to assessing the scope of this Regulation, as well as the extent of the prohibition laid down in point (b) of Article 4(1) and whether this Regulation should also apply to electronically supplied services the main feature of which is the provision of access to and use of copyright protected works or other protected subject matter, including the selling of copyright protected works or protected subject matter in an intangible form, provided that the trader has the requisite rights for the relevant territories.
Article 10 -
Amendments to Regulations (EC) No 2006/2004 and (EU)2017/2394 and Directive 2009/22/EC
1. In the Annex to Regulation (EC) No 2006/2004, the following point is added:
‘22.
Regulation (EU) 2018/302 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 February 2018 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 Regulations (EC) No 2006/2004 and (EU) 2017/2394 and Directive 2009/22/EC (OJ L 60 I, 2.3.2018, p. 1), only when the customer is a consumer as defined in point (12) of Article 2 of that Regulation.’.
2. In the Annex to Regulation (EU) 2017/2394, the following point is added:
‘27.
Regulation (EU) 2018/302 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 February 2018 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 Regulations (EC) No 2006/2004 and (EU) 2017/2394 and Directive 2009/22/EC (OJ L 60 I, 2.3.2018, p. 1), only when the customer is a consumer as defined in point (12) of Article 2 of that Regulation.’.
3. In Annex I to Directive 2009/22/EC, the following point is added:
‘16.
Regulation (EU) 2018/302 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 February 2018 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 Regulations (EC) No 2006/2004 and (EU) 2017/2394 and Directive 2009/22/EC (OJ L 60 I, 2.3.2018, p. 1)’.
Article 11 -
Final provisions
1. This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
It shall apply from 3 December 2018.
2. However, Article 6 shall apply to provisions of agreements concluded before 2 March 2018 that are compliant with Article 101 TFEU and with any equivalent rules of national competition law from 23 March 2020.
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.
