The European Commission is putting it’s hands on the Internet once again. This time it could be really good for us. The earlier mentioned Steam region blocks case can do more harm than good. Just image how bad it would be for the Eastern European countries if they just generalize the prices to fit all regions. Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and others are going to get higher prices, no doubts here. It really sucks but there’s nothing we can do about it. Business is business. Now this case is kind of different!

New EU rules will remove geoblocking so the EU customers can use online subscription services, like Netflix, Spotify or even Steam (maybe? some games are regionally restricted due to violence etc.) abroad. It does not mean that Netflix would have to offer the same library of content across all member countries. But if a customer signs up in one country, that same library can be accessed from any other member country. I’ve been to a couple of European countries in the past few years and Netflix was always driving me crazy, only showing the regional content, including movie/TV show covers (at least it was still in English if I wanted it to be, just change it in the account settings!).

The new regulations come into effect in early 2018, online services must provide a service to its customers regardless of their current location, as long as they stay within the EU.