Attention: Fine for geoblocking!

Alongside the Packaging Act, for which there are articles here and here, the EU’s Geo-blocking Regulation is probably one of the biggest changes for online retailers and providers of online services in Europe. You can find more information on my block here and explanations about the app and the like here.

However, both changes do not seem to have many market participants on their screens yet, and many companies ignore them. Violations of both sets of regulations may result not only in warnings from competitors, but also in fines.

The German legislator has now also included the Geoblocking Ordinance in Section 145 of the TKG (Telecommunications Act).

After that,

[..] contrary to administrative offence […] who opposes Regulation (EU) 2018/302 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 February 2019 on measures against unjustified geo-blocking and other forms of discrimination on grounds of nationality, residence or Place of establishment of the customer within the internal market and to amend Regulations (EC) No 2006/2004 and (EU) 2017/2394 and Directive 2009/22/EC (OJ No. L 60 I of 2.3.2018, p. 1) by intentionally or negligently
1. blocks or restricts access to the online user interface, contrary to Article 3(1),
2. in the contrary to Article 3 paragraph 2, forward a customer to a version of the online user interface mentioned therein;
3. applies different general terms and conditions contrary to Article 4 (1), or
4. applies different conditions for a payment transaction, contrary to Article 5 (1). […]

These can be found immediately after the standard, namely in Section 145 (2) No. 2 TKG. Accordingly, administrative offenses in the cases of paragraph 1 numbers 7a, 16 to 17a, 18, 26, 29, 30a, 33, 41 to 43 and paragraph 1c may be punished with a fine of up to three hundred thousand euros.

Author: Marian Härtel

Marian Härtel ist Rechtsanwalt und Fachanwalt für IT-Recht mit einer über 25-jährigen Erfahrung als Unternehmer und Berater in den Bereichen Games, E-Sport, Blockchain, SaaS und Künstliche Intelligenz. Seine Beratungsschwerpunkte umfassen neben dem IT-Recht insbesondere das Urheberrecht, Medienrecht sowie Wettbewerbsrecht. Er betreut schwerpunktmäßig Start-ups, Agenturen und Influencer, die er in strategischen Fragen, komplexen Vertragsangelegenheiten sowie bei Investitionsprojekten begleitet. Dabei zeichnet sich seine Beratung durch einen interdisziplinären Ansatz aus, der juristische Expertise und langjährige unternehmerische Erfahrung miteinander verbindet. Ziel seiner Tätigkeit ist stets, Mandanten praxisorientierte Lösungen anzubieten und rechtlich fundierte Unterstützung bei der Umsetzung innovativer Geschäftsmodelle zu gewährleisten.