Comment by esperent

3 days ago

Unlikely because services in the EU have to be offered without barriers to everyone across all member states.

8 comments

esperent

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joe_mamba  2 days ago

Which EU law say that exact thing?

Because now I live in an EU country that had (and has) foreign products and services, typically of US origin, that are not officially available in my home EU country, like for example Xbox GamePass for console. Was same with Nextflix till a few years ago. Same with AMEX cards.

So NO, you can definitely provide your services only to specific EU member states if that's what you wish, they can't force you to sell in all countries.

  • esperent  2 days ago

    It's called the Shop Like a Local rule, from 2018.

    Basically, Apple can stop selling developer accounts in Italy if they wish. They might run into issues on discrimination grounds, but it would probably be a long fight.

    However, they can't prevent an Italian developer from purchasing a developer account from another EU country.

    https://eur-lex.europa.eu/EN/legal-content/summary/geo-block...

    • runako  2 days ago

      I don't understand EU law, but wouldn't the country where the purchase happened be the one whose laws govern the transaction? In other words, if an Italian purchases a developer account from Germany, wouldn't any disputes be handled in German court?

      (Also, I would assume Apple would require a developer to have a legitimate physical business address in a country where they allow developers. I don't imagine this would be an easy transaction.)

      The opposite -- Italian law governs because the developer is Italian, even if the developer makes the purchase in Germany -- seems untenable even by European standards.

      2 replies →

  • macbr  2 days ago

    You're right but there has been some progress in that matter.

    I.e. streaming providers can't stop you from watching Germany exclusive Netflix content when on holidays in Greece using your German Netflix subscription (only free/ad supported services are allowed to do that)