(Telecompaper) The European Commission announced the start of two more public consultations on its Digital Single Market strategy, this time covering geo-blocking and online platforms. The geo-blocking consultation notably will not look at copyright-protected content and licensing and instead focus on other geographic restrictions on the sale of goods and services around the EU. It covers, for example, customers who are charged different prices or offered a different range of goods depending on which country where they live. This is part of the DSM's aim to increase cross-border e-commerce in the EU, with plans also underway to support more businesses selling online. The second new consultation looks at online platforms and their role in (international) commerce. This includes search engines, social media, video-sharing websites, app stores, etc, as well as the so-called "collaborative economy" being developed by services such as Uber and AirBnB. In addition to looking at ways to improve the free flow of data in the EU and support the emergence of a "European Cloud", the consultation will consider the liability of intermediaries in terms of illegal content hosted online.