ZAGREB, February 6, 2018 – The European Parliament (EP) has confirmed the results of negotiations on the Directive on geo-blocking and other forms of discrimination based on customers’ nationality, place of residence or place of establishment, Croatian MEP Biljana Borzan’s Osijek-based office said in a press release on Tuesday.
Borzan is a member of the EP Consumer Protection Committee and took part in the negotiations.
The press release issued by her office notes that this is the end of a two-year process and excellent news for Croatia because as of autumn, Croatian buyers will be able to buy on-line from all EU sites.
Until now, Croatian consumers, coming from a smaller and newer member state, were often discriminated against when buying on-line. Websites often refused to sell their goods to buyers from Croatia. A survey conducted by the European Commission showed that 63% of on-line traders do not sell beyond their borders, Borzan explained. She noted that removing the barriers related only to physical goods while services like eBooks or audio streamlining could be included in the legislation in the next two years.
Borzan recalled that she had requested that automatic redirection of buyers to national sites should be banned as buyers were redirected to national sites with different products and prices that were often higher than in other EU member states.
She said that the ban has been adopted and that more than 30% of Croatians buy on-line and that that number is constantly growing.
“Cross-border on-line shopping in the EU accounts for just 14% of all internet shopping. By removing this barrier, we expect that number to grow. The on-line market has great potential that would also benefit Croatian traders and consumers. It is estimated that an increase in on-line shopping from the current 5% to 15% would mean a definite growth of GDP of about 1.7% at the EU level,” Borzan said.
