Brussels, 26/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - At a conference in Berlin on 26 March, the Commissioner for Competition, Margrethe Vestager, announced that she plans to make a proposal to the College of European Commissioners in the next few weeks to launch an enquiry in the near future into the competition conditions in the e-commerce sector.
The Commission stresses that more and more goods and services are sold over the Internet in Europe, but that cross-border online sales within the EU are growing only slowly. This is partly due to language barriers, consumer preferences and differences in legislation across member states, but there are also indications that some companies might be taking measures to restrict cross-border e-commerce. “The envisaged sector enquiry will help the Commission to understand and tackle barriers to e-commerce to the benefit of European citizens and business”, the Commissioner stressed. The enquiry will aim to feed into the Commission's objectives on the digital single market and will focus on barriers of a private nature, more specifically contractual ones, to cross-border e-commerce. Depending on its analysis, the Commission may open case investigations if it pinpoints specific competition problems. (Elodie Lamer)