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18th May 2017

We have some good news for people using Netflix and Spotify in Europe

Alan Loughnane

Netflix

A new EU ruling is in your favour…

New rules voted in by the European Parliament on Thursday mean that users will be allowed to use their online streaming subscriptions when traveling in the EU the same way they do at home.

This applies to the streaming of TV series on movies on services like Netflix, as well as ebooks, and songs on services like Spotify.

While being a member of a streaming service like Netflix should be painfree, complexities do exist. Netflix users have access to different libraries, depending on where they’re located. Meaning that you could view a TV series in Ireland on the streaming platform, then travel to Germany to find that the same series is not available on that country due to a different library.

Under the new regulation, anyone who has paid for the right to use a service to watch, listen or read something from a provider in their own country, will be allowed to do so in any other EU country in which they’re staying for a limited period.

There will be some restrictions on the new rule, only people travelling to another EU state for a limited time such as on holiday or studying as part of an Erasmus programme, will be allowed to avail of the new rule.

“If you live for instance in Germany but you go on holiday or visit your family or work in Spain, you will be able to access the services that you had in Germany in any other country in the Union, because the text covers the EU,” says Jean-Marie Cavada, the French ALDE member responsible for steering the new rules through Parliament.

This is another step in the EU’s plan to allow free movement to both people and goods with EU borders, and this new rule is ensuring more free movement of digital services.

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