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setsunatenshi on 07 February 2018
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DonFerrari said:
setsunatenshi said:

Let's break this down:

 

1- The EU is a single market. There's no hypothetical here of considering the whole world or whatever. As a EU citizens we have certain rights and obligations. Companies also have certain rights and obligations if they want to operate in the EU. As such, if the EU determines this Geo blocking within EU countries is unlawful, the companies must abide by it, period.

2- No one is saying where any company must sell their product, if they want to open a shop in Germany but not in France, that's their business. What they can't do is discriminate a consumer just because he's from a different EU country.

3- Your problem with government intervention is irrelevant to the discussion. The fact is we live in a society with laws, and the laws are made by the governments that are elected by the people. Feel free to use your vote and political speech to influence the types of laws that are passed, but there's no way a government will stop existing to create and enforce said laws.

4- Finally your example is completely flawed. If amazon.de wants to sell a product cheaper than amazon.fr, they are perfectly free to do so. What they can't do is block a French person from buying said product from their German store.

 

Hope it's a bit more clear now

1 - Sure, have I said the rule is illegal or that the companies that don't abide are doing so under the law. I just said that the government (or supragovernment shouldn't intefere on this) and that even considering smaller markets there are still geographical differences, because there is and it have nothing to do with law.

2 - If you open one in France and one in Germany and have different price that isn't discrimination them?

3 - If you are so willing to bend over and accept that government intervention shall have no boundaries all the power to you. Which still, until they approve a law prohibiting me to say it, take out my right to consider it unneeded and with more than often negative impact.

4 - Not flawed. If you demand that anyone within EU can buy from any online store, then the very existence of national sites becomes irrelevant.

1- If the government doesn't "interfere" to correct anti-consumer behavior, then where exactly should they intervene? That's about the most useful thing the government can do. Make sure the consumer doesn't get abused by whichever companies. This is a regulated market.

2- Not really? It's up to the company to dictate the price they want to sell their goods. What they can't do is force me to buy them on shop A instead of shop B. The consumer should be free to pick which shop they want to spend their money (at least in the EU).

3- Government intervention absolutely has boundaries, that's why we have separation of powers between branches. Every law has to be confirmed constitutional before it goes into effect. That in itself is a boundary. Also, in a holistic way, the power comes back to the people when they are called to vote or speak their mind regarding any law they are against. I don't even understand what's your objection here.

4- Yes, in the EU we have a single market. And as a EU citizen I have the exact same right as any other citizen to buy a product from whatever other EU member state I wish. This is not even debatable. A company may create a specific website for a country, what they can't do is block users from other countries from it. It's really not as hard as you're making it out to be.