On 17 December 2018 the European Commission fined the clothing company Guess in the amount of EUR 39.8 million for restricting retailers from online advertising and selling cross-border to consumers in other Member States – i.e. “geoblocking”.
The Commission’s announcement of its fining decision complements the Regulation 2018/302 on unjustified geo-blocking (the “Regulation”), which came into force on 3 December 2018. The Regulation applies to ‘traders’ – which can be both legal and natural persons, in and outside of the EU, and prohibits traders from discriminating between customers in the sale of goods and services on the basis of (i) their nationality, (ii) their place of residence or (iii) their place of establishment.
