During the EP plenary session (5-8 February 2018) in Strasbourg, MEPs vote new rules to better cross-border access for online buyers to products, hotel bookings, car rentals or concert tickets. Traders will have to treat online shoppers from another EU country in the same way as local customers, i.e. grant them access to the same prices or sales conditions. Statements by Róża Gräfin von THUN UND HOHENSTEIN (EPP, PL), Rapporteur. The results from the vote are: 557 in favour, 89 against and 33 abstentions. Illustrative shots

Free movement of services (T2)

statement

Strasbourg

plenary session

vote

THUN UND HOHENSTEIN, Róża (Renew, PL)

Free movement of goods (T2)

Geo-blocking (T)

Geo-blocking and other forms of discrimination based on customers' nationality, place of residence or place of establishment: extracts from the vote, statement by Róża Gräfin von THUN UND HOHENSTEIN (EPP, PL), rapporteur and illustrative shots

Opening of the vote on Geo-blocking and other forms of discrimination based on customers' nationality, place of residence or place of establishment and extracts from the vote. Cutaway on R&oacute;ża Gr&auml;fin von THUN UND HOHENSTEIN (EPP,PL), rapporteur

Digital screen with result of the vote on the final agreement: 557 votes in favour, 89 against and 33 abstentions.

SOUNDBITE (English), R&#243;&#380;a Gr&#228;fin von THUN UND HOHENSTEIN (EPP, PL), Rapporteur, We are not blocked in a real life, when you go to a shop to buy something nobody asks you what&rsquo;s your nationality, but on the internet it is the case. For various shops the sites were blocked for consumers from different countries, or you were redirected back to the site of your own country even without knowing it. This will be prohibited now; a consumer will have access to all sites and all products and the seller will not be obliged to sell according to the laws and regulations of the country where the product is sold, if the trader doesn&rsquo;t direct his activities to this country, but can sell according to the laws and regulations of his own country. So he&rsquo;s safe and the situation is very clear and the consumer has to organise the transport. But the consumer has the access to all huge palate of goods and services of the European Union.

SOUNDBITE (English), R&oacute;ża Gr&auml;fin von THUN UND HOHENSTEIN (EPP, PL), Rapporteur, We really must go into this direction, that people can watch the television they desire, they can watch films that they want, they can listen to music that they buy in markets wherever they are, we must lift all barriers that separate us country by country from each other and this will be a real Europe.

Illustrative shots: - young woman comparing prizes of a green coat in two country-based websites of the same brand. - young man trying to buy a product and being geo-blocked as his postal code is not from the country where the website is based.