The Harper Review report referred to is a draft report making recommendations on Competition Policy. It was released in September and is currently open for comments, with the final report due for release in March.
It did not recommend any legislative ban on geo-restrictions, recognising the practical difficulties, some of which have been pointed out by Harry in this thread. In Paragraph 16.2 it said:
Attempting to legislate against international price discrimination could result in significant
implementation and enforcement difficulties and risks negative unintended consequences.
Instead, the Panel supports moves to address international price discrimination through market
solutions that empower consumers. These include the removal of restrictions on parallel imports
and ensuring that consumers are able to take legal steps to circumvent attempts to prevent their
accessing cheaper legitimate goods.
Also in that paragraph:
The Panel notes the recommendations of the July 2013 report of the House of Representatives
Standing Committee on Infrastructure and Communications into IT pricing in Australia.288 That
Committee recommended the removal of restrictions on parallel imports, consistent with Draft
Recommendation 9 of this Draft Report. In addition, the Committee made a number of
recommendations (as set out in Box 16.4) that the Panel endorses in principle as a means of
encouraging a market-based, consumer driven solution to concerns about international price
discrimination, as well as a number of recommendations that could form part of the overarching
review of intellectual property proposed at Draft Recommendation 7.
And finally, and most importantly, the Box 16.4 referred to:
Box 16.4: Relevant recommendations of House of Representatives Standing Committee Report
on IT pricing in Australia289
Recommendations that the Panel supports in principle include:
House of Representatives Committee Recommendation 5
The Australian Government amend the Copyright Act’s section 10(1) anti-circumvention provisions
to clarify and secure consumers’ rights to circumvent technological protection measures that
control geographic market segmentation.
House of Representatives Committee Recommendation 6
The Australian Government investigate options to educate Australian consumers and businesses as
to:
•
the extent to which they may circumvent geoblocking mechanisms in order to access cheaper
legitimate goods;
•
the tools and techniques which they may use to do so; and
•
the way in which their rights under the Australian Consumer Law may be affected should they
choose to do so.
House of Representatives Committee Recommendation 8
The Committee recommends the repeal of section 51(3) of the Competition and Consumer
Act 2010.
Recommendations that the Panel considers should form part of a review of IP laws:
House of Representatives Committee Recommendation 7
The Committee recommends that the Australian Government, in conjunction with relevant
agencies, consider the creation of a ‘right of resale’ in relation to digitally distributed content, and
clarification of ‘fair use’ rights for consumers, businesses, and educational institutions, including
restrictions on vendors’ ability to ‘lock’ digital content into a particular ecosystem.
House of Representatives Committee Recommendation 9
The Committee recommends that the Australian Government consider enacting a ban on
geoblocking as an option of last resort, should persistent market failure exist in spite of the
changes to the Competition and Consumer Act and the Copyright Act recommended in this report.
House of Representatives Committee Recommendation 10
That the Australian Government investigate the feasibility of amending the Competition and
Consumer Act so that contracts or terms of service which seek to enforce geoblocking are
considered void.
Notice the recommendation about creating resale rights? I believe this is largely impractical, at least for ebooks. My only observation is that fpr a wise industry or large company it may well be prudent to moderate your own practices before Government's do so.
The whole chapter is well worth a read. It also refers to the Canadian Government taking action to prevent its citizens being discriminated against on price.
The link to download a pdf of the draft report is
http://competitionpolicyreview.gov.a...aft-report.pdf