Geo-blocking from 1 January 2021
Geo-blocking rules when selling to and buying from the EU.
Overview
You do not need to make any changes to how you provide goods and services to customers based in the EU if you already comply with the EU Geo-Blocking Regulation.
Selling goods and services into the EU
You must follow the EU Geo-Blocking Regulation to sell certain goods and services in the EU from 1 January 2021. You will not be able to discriminate between customers in different EU countries, for example between a customer in France and a customer in Germany.
This means you cannot treat EU customers differently when they are buying:
- goods online
- electronically supplied services – for example, web hosting or cloud storage
- services provided in a physical location – for example, tickets to a theme park
These regulations do not apply to selling online copyrighted material like e-books and streamed movies. The rules do apply to physical copies like CDs and paper books.
You also cannot block access to, or automatically redirect customers away from a website or decline a payment card because of where it was issued in the EU.
Selling goods and services in the UK
You do not need to follow EU Geo-Blocking Regulation rules when selling goods and services in the UK to UK customers.
Buying goods and services from the EU
As a UK customer, you may be treated differently from EU customers when you buy goods and services from the EU. EU businesses will not have to follow the EU Geo-Blocking Regulation when they sell to the UK.