European Commission has presented its new regulation that aims to foster electronic commerce (e-commerce) among users and companies in the European Union.
3 june 2016
Problems related to the high shipping costs in the international transactions and the prices charged by postal operators for package shipping to other countries restrain the rise of online purchases in the EU. To encourage e-commerce among the member states, last 25 May the European Commission presented a new regulation which aims to boost the electronic commerce throughout three measures:
- Fighting against geographic blocking;
- Making more affordable and efficient bordering package shipping;
- Building customer trust, thanks to security improvement and regulation compliance.
Andrus Ansip, Vice-President of the single digital market, has claimed that this new regulation is intended to “tidy up the problems that hinder customers and companies to take fully advantage of selling and buying products and services on-line”.
Set of measures is composed by:
- A legislative proposal to deal with the unjustified geographic blocking and other different forms of discrimination on grounds of nationality, dwelling place or place of establishment;
- A legislative proposal about cross-border parcel services to increase price transparency and to improve regulatory oversight;
- A legislative proposal to strengthen the protection of consumers and some advices to make clear what is considered as an unfair commercial practice in the digital world.
Against national discrimination
EC proposes ending up with any kind of national discrimination in the single market. In e-commerce, access to offers from other countries webpages is several times blocked and many purchasers are requiered for a debt or credit card of a particular country when they are going to pay. While it is true that non-discrimination principle is applied in services directives, with this new proposal companies and consumers will know which practices are allowed and which are not.
The package of measures presented on May 25th complements the two legislative initiatives proposed by EC in December 2015 about digital content provision and online sales, and other on distance selling; and also the forthcoming proposal on the simplification of VAT, expected to 2016 autumn.
