Apple told by EU to end geo-blocking on services such as App Store

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By Sudip Kar-Gupta

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Apple was told by the EU on Tuesday to stop geo-blocking, the practice of restricting content according to a user’s geographical location, on services such as its App Store, Apple Arcade, Music, iTunes Store, Books and Podcasts.

The European Commission said it had identified several potentially prohibited geo-blocking practices on some Apple Media Services and threatened enforcement measures by national regulators if Apple failed to address its concerns.

“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,” said European Commissioner Margrethe Vestager.

The EU said Apple had one month to propose commitments on it would address the geo-blocking it had identified.

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Jan Harvey and Alexander Smith)