European Union lawmakers voted on Tuesday to ban online retailers from treating consumers differently depending on where they live and expanded their proposed law to include music streaming services such as Spotify and Apple’s iTunes.
Ending so-called geoblocking is a priority for the European Commission as it tries to create a single market for digital services across the 28-nation bloc, but many industries argue that they tailor their prices to specific domestic markets.
Tuesday’s vote means the European Parliament can begin final negotiations with EU member states to reach a deal on the proposal, after which it would become law.
The proposal, which will apply to e-commerce websites such as Amazon, Zalando and eBay, as well as for services provided in a specific location like car rental, forbids online retailers from automatically re-routing customers to their domestic website without their consent.
Amazon already makes it retail websites accessible to customers anywhere in Europe and says 98 percent of its own stock is available to shoppers from any European country.
In a blow for the book publishing and music industries, European Parliament members voted to include copyright-protected content such as music, games, software and e-books in the law.
