Apple Ordered to End Geo-Blocking by EU

By Sudip Kar-Gupta

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Apple was instructed by the EU on Tuesday to halt geo-blocking, the practice of limiting content based on a user's geographical location, on services such as its App Store, Apple Arcade, Music, iTunes Store, Books, and Podcasts.

The European Commission disclosed it had detected several potentially prohibited geo-blocking practices within some Apple Media Services, warning of enforcement actions from national regulators if Apple did not address these concerns.

European Commissioner Margrethe Vestager stated, "We are stepping up the fight against geo-blocking. No company, big or small, should unjustly discriminate customers based on their nationality, place of residence, or place of establishment."

The EU has given Apple one month to propose commitments on how it will remedy the identified geo-blocking issues.