Well, if Apple wants to do business at Europe or any nation, it need follows rules and regulation.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Under Pressure to Remove Geo-Blocking Restrictions in the EU
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Well, if Apple wants to do business at Europe or any nation, it need follows rules and regulation.
Yes, Apple needs to follow the rules in every country they operate in. Yet this case is very weird. About everyone and everything in the EU is using GEO-blocks arbitrary. If I want to watch Belgium TV from my receiver I’m always allowed to do that, but when I use the App from my internet provider that also provides my TV receiver, I’m quite often not allowed to do that even though I’m watching from my own house.
That they pick Apple to follow these rules seems quite arbitrary, but this might be because of Apple’s lame duck reaction to the EU App Store enforcement and DMA rules. It’s like Apple just accepted it, didn’t even explain their case. This makes them an easy target. Apple should really evaluate their European legal and lobby teams. I won’t say the policies they’re enforced to are wrong, but particularly their legal team is doing a very bad job defending Apple’s interests.
That they pick Apple to follow these rules seems quite arbitrary, but this might be because of Apple’s lame duck reaction to the EU App Store enforcement and DMA rules. It’s like Apple just accepted it, didn’t even explain their case. This makes them an easy target. Apple should really evaluate their European legal and lobby teams. I won’t say the policies they’re enforced to are wrong, but particularly their legal team is doing a very bad job defending Apple’s interests.
Yes, the EU is targeting every other company who doesn’t accept the EU rules.
Temu is targeted as well.
See the countries in the EU similar to the states of the US. 1 rule for all instead of all seperate rules for each country/state. It makes it much more simple for businesses and consumers.
And levels the playing field for everyone equally.
The EU isn’t targeting any businesses in particular. It’s haunting them who don’t apply to the rules.
Apple is notorious for finding loopholes in those rules. For example… it is using Ireland as a tax heaven to not pay taxes by doing business in the EU.
Apple isn’t playing that nicely into the markets they’re operating as they want you to believe. And now it’s haunting them as it is haunting every other company that tries to find loopholes to circumvent paying their taxes.
Don’t blame the EU, blame those companies that are willingly not cooperating with the law.
Europeans: EU isn't a country, these ignorant Americans should stop referring to us as if we were one single country because EU is 27 totally different and sovereign countries 😡
Also Europeans: See the countries in the EU similar to the states of the US
EU laws!!! 🇪🇺🇪🇺💪
Shows how weak and pathetic they are. They need 27 countries together to have any power.
Rubbish. I have two accounts. One for my US account/content and the other for European content. It’s no big deal.
That was not what Apple was doing with the Irish arrangement. Apple was using the setup to delay paying American taxes on its overseas profits, not avoid paying taxes altogether. Ireland and Apple both still maintain Ireland had no right to that money (because in the reality-based world they didn't, a corrupt EUCJ ruling non-withstanding. Why on Earth would you expect a non-resident company to owe taxes to Ireland on profits made outside of Ireland? You wouldn't. The company should be taxed in their home jurisdiction. Here's an old article that does a good job of explaining it if you don't want to take my word for it.)
And by the time the EUCJ got around to ruling, Apple had already paid the American taxes on the money. Which means now the US government will have to send Apple billions of dollars back as a credit for those foreign taxes paid that Apple was corruptly forced to pay to Ireland. Wonder what our once and future President will think about that?
Is the EU going to crack down on Google or Disney or Netflix or any other business that does this? A good portion comes down to licensing rights and the laws of the country they are doing business in. How about you help Ukraine out and stop the rest of us from getting into yet another World War started in Europe.
EU should do the same thing across the board. Either they make sure geoblocking is history everywhere in every EU country for every company or not at all.
As of now, it looks like they are only after Apple in order to make money. As long as there is no United States of Europe where nations are unified this kind of issue will persist for the time being.
A proper vpn service will solve most of the consumer issues though.
As of now, it looks like they are only after Apple in order to make money. As long as there is no United States of Europe where nations are unified this kind of issue will persist for the time being.
A proper vpn service will solve most of the consumer issues though.
This would really be useful - I am often in other countries. Downloading some specific apps (e.g. for a shop, the electricity provider etc.) is often impossible if they are on a local store. Also switching the App-Store these days is virtually impossible as well (e.g. you‘ll have to cancel all subscriptions etc. to do it).
So - welcomed move from our benevolent overlords in Brussels …
So - welcomed move from our benevolent overlords in Brussels …
Either they give me the same services they give you in the US or they sell me the devices at a discount…
You hit the nail on the head right here. It's a single market.
Also Europeans
The EU is a collection of sovereign states who have chosen to pool sovereignty in certain areas where there is mutual benefit, one of which is having a single market for goods and services. In areas wheresovereignty is not pooled, we remain totally independent.
The EU is a collection of sovereign states who have chosen to pool sovereignty in certain areas where there is mutual benefit, one of which is having a single market for goods and services. In areas wheresovereignty is not pooled, we remain totally independent.
Collecting the IP address is not a problem under GDPR. It's storing that IP address that's problematic. If you want your website to be able to be visited from the EU, you have to abide by their rules. That is completely normal for every country in the world. If I host a website with all kinds of stuff that's illegal in the US, and the website can be visited from the US, I'll be in trouble with US law. that's not a problem if I don't go there.
Same for you: host your website with EU-illegal stuff and stay in the US, nothing will happen. But if you want to come to EU and you have a website that hosts EU-illegal stuff, you can be punished. The EU is not at all unique or special in that regard, the same goes for ANY jurisdiction.
It’s actually nothing new. EU banned geo-blocking years ago. The idea was that the all citizens could roam freely around the community and still use national streaming services. With the time passed even mobile phones roaming fees has been removed. it’s good thing, I appreciate it as I travel a lot.
Last edited:
Hypothetical, If I made an app that’s legal in France, but not in Germany, who gets in trouble for this forced distribution? Does the forced distribution protect the maker and distributor? Or can it never be made at all?
Or have all member states given up all control over what can be bought and sold?
People keep comparing this to the US states, but the US States have not given up control over what is and isn’t sold in their state, and no one says “if it’s sold in Texas it must be sold in California”.
That's actually not true. And to be more specific, yes, if I use say, analytics of any type on my site, that will collect an IP. At least anything worthwhile, because it's the most basic of basics.
Then, it violates it.
So I'd say that about 99.998% of the Internet is violating GDPR in one way or another.
A MUCH BETTER WAY TO DEAL WITH THE ISSUE:
The EU should instead block by default, all Internet requests that fall outside the EU region itself.
Then, each person can put a request into the EU with their country-issued ID or some sort of personal unique identifier for the EU. Then, and only then will that SINGLE user be able to connect to outside-the-EU websites, saving the world from all of the EU nightmares.
Let the EU figure out how to make this happen, since a person could use different IPs. That's up to the EU. Not up to the USA or any other country that the EU pursues.
Yeah. More practices like this needs to be done, until capitalists stop screwing over their customers.
But even then we should not stop, and we won’t
The address thing maybe, though having an exact and valid address is required for lots of services that aren’t physical.
But imagining a product being available/legal in one US State and not in another US State doesn’t require imagination, there are tens of thousands of such products.
What sounds silly to me is thinking the Feds might force me to sell my product in all 50 states instead of the one state I want to sell it in. Cultural difference, maybe
It seems like the actual issue isn't about what's legal and what isn't, it's about what is available to who. Say I'm French, but staying in Germany. I would not be able to download the app of a local coffee shop to order ahead because this coffee shop's app is only available to users with their region set to German, even though I'm physically in Germany. Or something like that, this is only my interpretation of the article only.
What sounds silly to me is thinking the Feds might force me to sell my product in all 50 states instead of the one state I want to sell it in. Cultural difference, maybe
Did you read the article? Here's what it says;
which sounds to me like I should be able to download a German app if I'm in the neighborhood, even though I and my Account are French.
You wouldn't discriminate against a paying customer just cause they're not a local would you?
Apps are not legal or illegal - if the good or service behind it is illegal in one or more states, then it can’t be sold to a person IN the State where it is illegal. What Apple seems to be doing is say “You’re FROM X State where A Service is illegal. Even though you LIVE in Y State where it’s totally legal, we won’t let you access it.”
That’s against the principle of the single market.
ireland even has a specific provision in its Constitution guaranteeing the right of citizens to travel to avail of services that are legal in other states, even if it’s illegal in Ireland.
I have mixed feelings about that. App developers should have the option to decide where they want to sell their app. For TV shows geoblocking in the EU is normal. Why are apps that different?