Geo-blocking

Geo-blocking is when a website restricts or changes its content based on where a visitor appears to be. A site might show local prices and currency, hide products that don't ship to a region, or refuse access entirely where it isn't licensed or permitted to operate.

Adapting content by location is usually called geo-targeting or localization. Geo-blocking is the restrictive end of the same practice.

Why sites restrict or adapt content by location

• Licensing and rights. Video, sports, music and publishing rights are often sold country by country.
• Law and regulation. Gambling, financial products, sanctions, age rules and data protection differ by jurisdiction.
• Pricing, tax and currency. Local prices, VAT and currency formats.
• Shipping and availability. Products or services that a business can't deliver to every region.
• Language and relevance. Serving the language, store and catalog most likely to fit the visitor.
• Security. Limiting traffic from regions where a service has no customers. Some rules limit geo-blocking. The EU's Geo-blocking Regulation, in force since 3 December 2018, prohibits unjustified discrimination between EU customers based on nationality, residence or location. It still allows justified differences, such as tax registration or delivery costs.

How sites determine location

• IP geolocation. Servers and CDNs look up the visitor's IP address in a geolocation database such as MaxMind. These are estimates: MaxMind reports about 99.8% accuracy at country level, but for US addresses around 80% at state level and 66% at city level within 50 km. Mobile networks and business VPNs reduce accuracy further.
• Account details. Billing address, shipping address or a saved country setting.
• Browser signals. The Accept-Language header, time zone, or the browser's location API when the visitor grants permission.
• Visitor choice. A country selector, a regional subdomain such as de.example.com, or a locale path such as example.com/de/.

Localization vs geo-blocking

HTTP 451 Unavailable For Legal Reasons signals that a server is withholding content because of a legal demand.

Collecting regional data responsibly

Regional data such as local prices, availability and search results is valuable for market research and price monitoring. Collect it through routes the site supports:

• Use the site's own regional pages. Country subdomains, locale paths and currency selectors often give you each public regional version directly.
• Use an official API, feed or data license with region or locale parameters, where one exists.
• Collect the public version a site serves to a region, where its terms allow automated collection.
• Record the region with every data point. Prices and availability only make sense alongside the country and currency they came from.
• Treat a regional block as a no. If a site refuses access from a region, that's an access restriction. Changing your apparent location doesn't give you permission. Ask the site owner or use a licensed source.

Regional data collection in MrScraper

MrScraper lets you choose the country a request is routed from:

• Scraper API: the geoCode parameter sets the country the page loads from (default us).
• Scraper settings: the built-in proxy offers a country and region dropdown.
• Residential Proxies: country targeting with two-letter ISO 3166 codes.

curl -X POST "https://api.mrscraper.com/?token=YOUR_API_TOKEN&geoCode=de" \
  -H "x-api-token: YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "url": "https://example.com/de/products/123",
    "prompt": "Extract the product name, price and currency.",
    "agent": "general"
  }'

Use it to collect the public, localized version of a page, such as regional prices for monitoring, where the site's terms allow. Choosing a location doesn't grant access to content a site restricts by region, and a given location may not load every site.

Frequently asked questions

Is geo-blocking legal?

Generally yes, though some rules limit it. The EU Geo-blocking Regulation restricts unjustified geo-blocking between EU customers, and other laws apply to specific sectors. This is general information, not legal advice.

Why do I see a different price from another country?

That's usually localization: the site shows a regional price, currency or tax treatment based on where it estimates you are.

Can I use a VPN or proxy to see geo-blocked content?

Changing your apparent location doesn't change a site's access rules, and many services' terms prohibit it. For data, use the site's regional pages, an official API or a licensed source.

How accurate is IP geolocation?

It's an estimate. Country-level results are usually reliable, while state and city results are much less so, especially on mobile networks and VPNs.