Evaluation of the Geo-blocking Regulation (debate)
Dita Charanzová, on behalf of the Renew Group. – Mr President, I can only share my dismay at the result of your review: 10% blocked at registration, 10% at payment and 50% blocked by the refusal to deliver cross—border. I personally continue to find it outrageous that multinationals are refusing to deliver, often the same product from the same warehouse, depending on whether a consumer is using one version of a website or another. This artificial national market segmentation must stop.
As for copyright—protected content, we can only truly end geo-blocking if this is included. I firmly believe that the regulation should be extended to copyright—protected content.
Mr Commissioner, we are not all treated as equals. It is not right that a German viewer has access to 43% of all audiovisual content, while a Greek has access to only 1%. There is something very wrong with the audiovisual industry and the way we allow it to work. If the industry will not urgently agree to voluntarily lift these barriers, it’s time for us to do so in law. I hope the Commission will make this clear and be prepared to act before this term is up.