European single market? Not on iTunes
E-commerce was supposed to break down borders, but try buying something from a website overseas and you’ll frequently find that there’s some lawyer who says you can’t.
A tune might be available on iTunes in the UK or France, but if your iTunes account is in Germany or Sweden you will often find yourself barred from buying it. Sometimes, the European Single Market is little more than an illusion – and for expats in particular, it can be frustrating.
The European Commission is now trying to bang a few heads together. Competition commissioner Nellie Kroes has brought together Apple’s Steve Jobs, the Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger and the CEO of eBay to try to work out what can be done.
Still, isn’t it odd that Eurocrats should be needed to persuade companies to sell their products to consumers who want to buy them? Surely good capitalists should want to find a way to make this happen?
October 27th, 2008 at 8:04 am
Freedom for E-commerce is an important issue to everyone regardless of where one is buying from or selling to. It is very much worth the time an effort. Thanks to the people who are working to make it possible to buy from wherever one chooses.
December 14th, 2008 at 10:29 am
Absolutely ! The concept of free trade within the EU,or indeed of globalisation, bringing benefits to consumers is a sham. The clear truth is that the financially powerful lobby gets it’s way and the politicians dance to their tune and provide them with the laws they require. I recall, but can’t remember the name of, the russian music service, entirely within the framework of prevailing russian law at the time, offering music downloads at russian prices. It didn’t take long for the “authorities” to rule that it was legal for them to make the offer, but illegal for us to accept it. Why ? Because the music industry swings big bucks. If the EU-luvvies are trying to make these concepts work then more power to their collective elbows.
February 5th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
Very informative article, which I found quite useful. Cheers ,Jay
March 1st, 2009 at 2:10 am
Well written, comprehensive…great post.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
Mehr ist dazu nicht zu sagen – da hat sich einer wirklich Gedanken gemacht
January 21st, 2010 at 12:29 pm
This is indeed a serious problem within the EU. Living in Germany, there are plenty of times that I wish to purchase music from smaller, less known bands that are available on iTunes in the UK or other European countries, but are barred to do so by the record labels that supposedly look after the interests of these bands. How exactly is it looking after their interests when they limit their market? Especially, when they limit their market within the EU which is supposed to be a single market? The ONLY thing it does is limit sales and revenue not only for the band, but for themelves, as well as denying customers the opportunity for listening to that music. It is an a clear example of why the record company’s are loosing financially so badly and why I personally have so little feelings for them if they do go under.
It is especially illogical when one can still buy the CD from another country and have it shipped over. Something especially compelling as a new release CD often costs €18 in Frankfurt shops or Amazon.de, but I can buy the same CD for £5 on UK’s Amazon.co.uk.
But if you think the music industry is bad, it has nothing on the television or video industry. Not only have these companies ignored the lessons painfully learnt from the record industry in the last few years, but they impose even more restrictions without remorse or logical considerations.
The television and video industry has something extra which does not really affect the music industry. The language barrier. It is one thing to offer a film or television show for sale in one country and restrict that sale in each country, but when the original language is dubbed over, restricting the sale of the original is quite counter productive. This also goes for online TV channels which restrict the viewing of their shows to within their own country in the EU. They so often claim how great it is as people can never need to miss shows even when on holiday… except, when you are on holiday you get faced with the screen saying you are outside of the country and your IP address is banned.
I know what many will say. Why should we be able to watch the BBC when we don’t pay the license fee.
Fair enough.
Then let me pay the license fee ;O)
We should have the right within Europe to pay for extra license fees in other European countries so that we can watch their content. How on earth can this be so hard to organize and how can it cause any problems. I pay the German license fee. Fine. But if I also was allowed to pay the BBC license fee, then both I could enjoy their content and the BBC will have increased revenues. There are millions of UK citizens living across Europe which the BBC should be considering as potential revenue providers.
It’s times like this when I see logic thrown out the window that I sigh and realize why we have so many problems in our world.
March 15th, 2010 at 11:23 am
In my opinion, it has to do with the reluctance of Apple and other retailers to follow EU standards on pricing and availability.
July 5th, 2010 at 9:47 am
[...] would also like to see the EU to enforce the rules of the single market with greater efficiency. Many consumers are not happy, either – particularly those who want to carry out cross-border online [...]
July 23rd, 2010 at 7:10 pm
I never have understood all the blocks and inability to download items from the Istore. It really does get redundant and forces people who may be really an outstanding citizen to look for alternative ways to get there music. Please don’t think that I’m condoning anything illegal, but it’s very unjust for us not to be able to have the same options as people in the states.
August 10th, 2010 at 9:56 am
Totally agree, pay for the extra license fees in other European countries. We get BBC in Canada, but when i viist uk, i want those stations