Brussels, 22/10/2009 (Agence Europe) - The online internal market does not, to all intents and purposes, exist, depriving consumers of opportunities to buy goods at lower prices. There is nothing new in this, but a recent European study, published on Thursday 22 October, reveals that, in the EU, 60% of goods purchased online in a member state other than that of the purchaser are not completed. The situation is sufficiently serious to harden the Commission's resolve to act to remedy the situation. A communication also presented on Thursday sets out the strategy it is proposing to the EU to remove barriers to e-commerce in the EU.
The study was conducted for the Commission by an independent body. Throughout the EU, consumers tried to buy 100 popular goods online (cameras, CDs, washing machines, books, clothes) from a supplier in another member state. Of 11,000 orders, 60% remained incomplete: either the trader did not ship the goods or did not make the appropriate cross-border payments, or the information asked of the consumer were too personal, etc. Latvia, Belgium, Romania and Bulgaria are the countries where consumers are least able to buy cross border.
Worse, more than half these kinds of purchases are destined to fail in 25 of the 27 member states. “For example in Belgium, 66% of the goods searched were not available online from domestic retailers but could be found on another member states' website. They could be found, but not necessarily purchased. There is no European retail market online but instead 27 inefficient mini-markets. We have the technology for a big market but not the trade. And this is generating a lot of frustration among European citizens who expect and deserve better,” said European Consumer Protection Commissioner Meglena Kuneva presenting the results of the study to press. Nor must linguistic barriers be said to be the main problem. The Commissioner does not believe it for a moment. In March 2009, a report on barriers to e-commerce identifies language barriers as the main problem that prevented full benefit to be derived from cross-border transactions (see EUROPE 9855). However, Kuneva noted, 59% of retailers claimed they were able to sell online in more than one language, and one consumer in three expresses willingness to buy in a foreign language, if necessary. For the Commissioner, the problem lies more with the lack of confidence in consumers' rights (access to complaints procedures, for example) and with the serious issue of regulatory barriers. “However, “we do not want consumers to trust the market and venture outside their borders, only to be rebuffed by traders who find it too difficult or too burdensome to serve them,” Kuneva warned. The main thrust of the strategy envisaged is:
- a simple, single set of rights for EU consumers. The proposal in the October 2008 directive on consumers' rights in sales contracts for purchases made cross-border and in shops (see EUROPE 9988) aims to achieve this by replacing the current patchwork of laws with one simple EU-wide set of rights, offering equal protection to consumers while reducing compliance costs for retailers
- application of the legislation beyond borders has to be strengthened and consumers given appropriate means of redress. Coordinated action at EU level is needed to monitor the application of consumer law (including on internet scanning) to eradicate illegal practices and give consumers greater reason not to mistrust cross-border shopping
- cross-border regulatory environment which does not provide incentives to traders to offer services to consumers from other member states has to be simplified: VAT reporting obligations have to be made simpler, the burden for traders related to the recycling obligations has to be reduced and a manageable system on the collection of copyright levies has to be established. Currently, some distributors have to deal with several tax authorities and differing national laws on, for example, recycling electronic waste, and even risk having to pay copyright levies in several countries for the same goods. The Commission says that practical solutions to the levies issue have to be found quickly.
- a forum has to be set up bringing all the stakeholders together to discuss the problems related to trade data collection and the use of these data. A forum of this sort could only, the Commission hopes, increase confidence in online shopping. (A.N./transl.rt)