European Commission looking to remove regional barrier for digital content

The European Commission has announced plans to remove regional digital content in the EU, which could have a major effect on services such as Steam, Xbox LIVE and the PlayStation Network.

Currently these services offer regional portals for each location, sometimes for rights reasons , but more often than not to allow them to charge individual prices for each country, however the EU thinks this practice is wrong.

“Let us do away with all those fences and walls that block us online,” the Commission’s VP for the Digital Single Market Andrus Ansip said. “People must be able to freely go across borders online just as they do offline.

“Innovative businesses must be helped to grow across the EU, not remain locked into their home market. This will be an uphill struggle all the way, but we need an ambitious start. Europe should benefit fully from the digital age: better services, more participation
and new jobs.”

Commissioner for the Digital Economy Günther Oettinger added: “Europe cannot be at the forefront of the digital revolution with a patchwork of 28 different rules for telecommunications services, copyright, IT security and data protection.

“We need a European market, which allows new business models to flourish, start-ups to grow and the industry to take advantage of the internet of things. And people have to invest too – in their IT-skills, be it in their job or their leisure time.

“Too many Europeans cannot use online services that are available in other EU countries, often without any justification; or they are re-routed to a local store with different prices. Such discrimination cannot exist in a Single Market.”

So what effect could this have? Well, perhaps for rights reasons a game may not be available in a certain country. If this is no individual store for each country then could this mean that the game will not be allowed to be sold at all? Also, Germany for instance
often has games which have been censored, so does this mean that any game sold digitally would need to be censored in all of Europe?

There are bonuses of course as the removal of restrictions could mean cheaper pricing for the UK.

:)

 

Disc vs. Download

@tohe tax is regional based, in the UK there is Tax on digital products.

As a business if you hit the VAT cap (sales tax cap) in any country your supposed to then pay that countries VAT, now since its digital you could argue that they purchased the item in the country the new tax exempt store would be.

Looks like Europe has already thought about it:

blog.etsy.com/.../european-union-value-added-tax-vatmoss

 

Xbox/Games compatibility

Hi Revanjade,

Your European Xbox 360 games will only work with a European Xbox 360 console due to region locks. For a Japanese console you will need to buy Japanese copies of the game. Original Xbox games should still be playable in Japan, but subject to the same regional
restrictions.

I hope this helps.

 

www.shopto.net/.../European-Commission-looking-to-remove-regional-barrier-for-digital-content

 

Not sure that VAT will change...Actually we can buy the same the product around Europe,but each country got is own VAT.

I don't see how European Commission can tell to Microsoft which games can be sold or not,and in which languages it should be translated.

Maybe these plans are for internet providers around Europe...

By the time these plans are voted and in full effect,a new gen of consoles will be here.(maybe two gen)...

 

It wont happen because of censorship laws. Germany has huge power in the EU, so there is no way that they'd allow something like this to pass.

And sorry for the off-topic question Lofty but why do you always put the link to the article in a separate post?

 

Why can't people just be.... for a lack of a better term free. Allow them to surf, purchase, play and enjoy download without (data caps) whatever they want so long as it is not illegal. Oh that's right. There is a lot illegal in Europe

 

@ Vaynel,

For whatever reason mate I can put the link in the original post but it isn't clickable, basically just ends up as a lazy link, tried so many different things but it still doesn't work.

Post a separate post and it's clickable lol

 

The wonders of this forum, can't even manage links correctly.