Amazon geographical restrictions

cyclonico · 7 June 2010 at 1:37PM

I was trying to find mp3's of a French artist, could not find then on Amazon.co.uk, so went to Amazon.fr. I found what I wanted there, added to the basket, but was told at the checkout that due to geographical restrictions I could not buy these mp3's....!

Is that legal?

ND.

cyclonico · 7 June 2010 at 3:42PM

No EU commerce law expert around then?

I have e-mailed my question to the BEUC. I'll post any useful info that arrives.

Note that some mp3's are only available on foreign amazon sites; also some tracks/albums can be significantly cheaper.

ND.

el_gringo_3 · 7 June 2010 at 3:56PM

You don't have to release a product in all E.U countries just because you release it in one!

I'd imagine its to do with either the especially tight laws the UK has towards copyright control, playback and royalties compared to France.
On the other hand, it could be to do with the French culture control laws, which have been argued about by E.U commerce law experts for a long while.

cyclonico · 7 June 2010 at 10:47PM

But can you prevent customers from buying purely because of their geographical location? I am sure you can find a few EU laws that this breaches.

It has to do with copyright laws apparently... There is a similar case which was triggered by iTunes geographical restrictions back in 2007. The European commission is pushing to remove these restrictions.

d-seven · 7 June 2010 at 11:12PM

Try and find a French anonymous proxy server and go to amazon.fr via that...That should give the impression that you are coming from a french IP address. Theres no guarentee it will work, but worth a try

You will probably have to make up a new account on there though....

cyclonico · 7 June 2010 at 11:38PM

d-seven wrote: »

Try and find a French anonymous proxy server and go to amazon.fr via that...That should give the impression that you are coming from a french IP address. Theres no guarentee it will work, but worth a try

You will probably have to make up a new account on there though....

Indeed, it might work; and I believe it's legal as well. But I am too scared of man-in-the-middle attacks while using untrusted proxy servers...