Why Netflix Isn't a European Company
Andrus Ansip: His hands are tied.
Photographer:Perhaps the biggest reason Europe hasn't produced digital economy giants like Google, Amazon, Facebook or Netflix is that there's no such thing as "Europe." Starting out in Sweden, France or Germany, a company is not European -- it's Swedish, French or German. Tax regulations, postal tariffs, financial systems, copyright, labeling and data protection rules -- nothing is harmonized.
Failing to get members states to accept more uniformity, European bureaucrats seize every chance to fix what's not broken and regulate what doesn't need regulating. The European Commission's recent Digital Single Market proposals are a good example: They put off removing geographical blocks (so-called geoblocking) on digital content, but they contain a requirement for Netflix and other video-on-demand services to include no less than 20 percent European content in their catalogues.