Geo-blocking in Cross-border e-Commerce in the EU Digital Single Market

Melisande Cardona

No 2016-04, JRC Working Papers on Digital Economy from Joint Research Centre

Abstract: A cross-border e-commerce Mystery Shopping Survey conducted in 2015, finds that the practice of erecting virtual barriers is still common in cross-border e-commerce within the EU, as it was in 2009. Electrical appliances, electronics and computer games are particularly difficult to buy online from another country. Geo-blocking often takes place at the delivery stage of the online purchase process and less often at the access stage. Larger websites can also block access according to a buyers IP address. Geo-blocking is less probably between countries sharing a common language while a common border or geographical proximity has no effect. Travel services have a different pattern of geo-blocking from tangible goods, where geo-blocking mainly takes place at the access stage. Price analysis shows that differentiation takes place in all sectors, but is more common in the sectors less affected by geo-blocking.

Keywords: geo-blocking; mystery shopping; cross-border e-commerce; digital single market (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 44 pages
Date: 2016-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-ict, nep-int and nep-pay
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ipt:decwpa:2016-04

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