It's tricky. Article 36 allows some restrictions to free trade: > ... the Treaty does not affect the existence of industrial property rights granted pursuant t

It's tricky. Article 36 allows some restrictions to free trade: > ... the Treaty does not affect the existence of industrial property rights granted pursuant to the legislation of the Member States. Accordingly, national legislation on the acquisition, transfer and extinction of such rights is lawful. So IPR can be restricted nationally. However: > The second principle is that an industrial property right is exhausted when a product has been lawfully distributed in the market of a Member State by the owner of the right or with his or her consent. Thereafter the owner of the right may not oppose the importation of the product into any Member State where it was first marketed. To me, this is clearly the case of VPNs: you are lawfully acquiring access to the content in the country where it is sold, and then consuming it in another country.