Black Week and consumer rights when shopping online in other EU countries
Year of issue 2023
Date of issue 2023.11.17
The Bundesnetzagentur is calling on consumers to report breaches of geo-blocking rules they encounter when making cross-border purchases online. Traders often refuse to accept billing addresses and credit cards from other EU countries, block versions of their online shops from being accessed from other EU countries or refuse to deliver within their delivery regions.
"We support consumers so they can shop without restrictions anywhere in Europe,"
said Klaus Müller, President of the Bundesnetzagentur. "Whether it is Black Week, Black Friday or Cyber Monday, traders have to offer their products to local and European customers on the same terms, even when they are on special offer."
Consumer rights for cross-border purchases
Traders of goods and services active in the EU internal market are not allowed to restrict access to their online shops and to the purchasing of goods and services based on the origin of customers who are nationals of an EU country or have their place of residence in an EU country. There are exemptions from the Geo-blocking Regulation, for example, streaming services or services in the financial, healthcare and transport sectors.
For Black Week, this means that traders can offer different special promotions and discounts in their various national online shops provided that European consumers have non-discriminatory access to all of them.
Regarding delivery, it should be noted that traders are not always required to deliver to the consumer's place of residence. When making cross-border purchases, however, consumers have the right to require traders to deliver within their delivery area and then consumers can organise transport to their chosen address themselves, for example by using a logistics company or a specialised parcel forwarding service.
Enforcement of the Geo-blocking Regulation
If consumers encounter unjustified discrimination within the meaning of the Geo-blocking Regulation, they can complain to the Bundesnetzagentur. The Bundesnetzagentur is the authority responsible for enforcing the provisions of the Geo-blocking Regulation against traders in Germany. It can issue orders and impose fines of up to €300,000. In the event of breaches by traders from other EU countries, the Bundesnetzagentur requests the national authority of that country to take measures.
The complaints currently being received by the Bundesnetzagentur largely concern cross-border purchases of goods. A common problem when shopping online is that the order process does not permit billing addresses from other EU countries to be entered and thus the orders cannot be completed. Other barriers, such as not permitting the use of certain parcel forwarding services and unjustified discrimination in giving additional bonuses with the purchase of technical products, have also led to complaints. In all cases in which the Bundesnetzagentur has intervened up to now, the companies have ceased breaching the Geo-blocking Regulation.
Complaint form
Complaints about geo-blocking can be submitted at www.bundesnetzagentur.de/geoblocking-beschwerde.
Further information is available at www.bundesnetzagentur.de/online-einkaufen.