Cross-border online content portability

Regulation (EU) 2017/1128 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2017

Regulation (EU) 2017/1128 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2017 on cross-border portability of online content services in the internal market has been published in the EU Official Journal on 30 June, 2017.

This Regulation shall apply to the cross-border portability of online content services, by ensuring that subscribers to portable online content services which are lawfully provided in their Member State of residence can access and use those services when temporarily present in a Member State other than their Member State of residence. This will enable European citizens to fully use their online subscriptions of movies, sport events, electronic books, video games or music, whenever they are travelling across the European Union.

This include in particular the broadcasted contents by broadcast organizations or by the Information Society service providers, of linear transmission or upon request, supplied by downloading, streaming or any other mean by large companies or SMEs, against a subscription fee or free of charge, in this last case on condition that the provider verifies the subscriber's Member State of residence in accordance with the Regulation, for example through the IP address or Internet connection.

For example, when a Portuguese citizen, subscriber of a streaming or transmission on demand service vacations to any Member State, he will have access to his originally-subscribed Portuguese service while located in that Member State.

The Regulation shall apply to future contracts and also to contracts concluded and rights acquired before the date of its application if they are relevant for the provision of, access to and use of an online content service.

Any contractual provisions, including those between providers of online content services and holders of copyright or related rights or those holding any other rights in the content of online content services, as well as those between such providers and their subscribers, which are contrary to this Regulation, including those which prohibit cross-border portability of online content services or limit such portability to a specific time period, shall be unenforceable.

The Regulation enters into force 20 days after its publication in the EU Official Journal and is applicable from 20 March 2018. It is expected that the service providers may benefit from this enlarged vacatio legis period to better adapt to the new rules, namely by redefining their delivery services' contract terms and conditions.