An interesting debate on geo-blocking is working its way through Europe’s industry, and it bears watching because it may impact how widely ebooks are sold in much of the European Union.
If you’re not close to the issue, the term geo-blocking can be deceptive. Geo-blocking is the restriction of content sales and access to services based on the user’s location, and it relates to where retailers are obligated to offer their services. While booksellers might like to make sales union-wide—and, indeed, many do sell outside their territories when they have the chance—the bookselling community is actually in favor of geo-blocking (i.e., limiting sales areas). That’s because European booksellers face special challenges when they try to sell ebooks to consumers in countries other than their own.
The alternative to geo-blocking is the requirement (now part of proposed legislation in the EU) that a local bookshop offer ebooks across all borders. This would require that bookshop to handle the varying tax requirements (VAT) of sales in every other country in the union, displaying that tax rate correctly at the time of the sale, and applying the correct fixed-price frameworks that are in place in various nations.
With other technical and commercial hurdles thrown in, it would be a logistical nightmare for most stores to handle such sales, and if geo-blocking doesn’t prevail in the EU legislation, then the fear among many booksellers’ and publishers’ associations around Europe is that many bookstores will simply have to stop selling ebooks.
Bottom line: While ebooks remain a relatively small part of the market in continental Europe at this point, the general industry thinking is that this will change. And because of several trade constraints, major retailers such as Amazon have achieved less dominance in these nations’ ebook markets than in the UK (and in the US). Many local bookshops are willing to sell ebooks to their customers who want to buy them, but they need the protection of geo-blocking to make it financially feasible. You can learn more from this petition and video from the European and International Booksellers Federation.
An interesting debate on geo-blocking is working its way through Europe’s industry, and it bears watching because it may impact how widely ebooks are sold in much of the European Union.
If you’re not close to the issue, the term geo-blocking can be deceptive. Geo-blocking is the restriction of content sales and access to services based on the user’s location, and it relates to where retailers are obligated to offer their services. While booksellers might like to make sales union-wide—and, indeed, many do sell outside their territories when they have the chance—the bookselling community is actually in favor of geo-blocking (i.e., limiting sales areas). That’s because European booksellers face special challenges when they try to sell ebooks to consumers in countries other than their own.
The alternative to geo-blocking is the requirement (now part of proposed legislation in the EU) that a local bookshop offer ebooks across all borders. This would require that bookshop to handle the varying tax requirements (VAT) of sales in every other country in the union, displaying that tax rate correctly at the time of the sale, and applying the correct fixed-price frameworks that are in place in various nations.
With other technical and commercial hurdles thrown in, it would be a logistical nightmare for most stores to handle such sales, and if geo-blocking doesn’t prevail in the EU legislation, then the fear among many booksellers’ and publishers’ associations around Europe is that many bookstores will simply have to stop selling ebooks.
Bottom line: While ebooks remain a relatively small part of the market in continental Europe at this point, the general industry thinking is that this will change. And because of several trade constraints, major retailers such as Amazon have achieved less dominance in these nations’ ebook markets than in the UK (and in the US). Many local bookshops are willing to sell ebooks to their customers who want to buy them, but they need the protection of geo-blocking to make it financially feasible. You can learn more from this petition and video from the European and International Booksellers Federation.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
