On Wednesday 5 February, the European Commission presented its communication on the challenges of e-commerce, which Agence Europe had detailed the day before (see EUROPE 13572/5).
The action plan focuses on the use of legislation already in place, which will be strengthened or updated to match current ambitions. With its new “comprehensive EU toolbox for safe and sustainable e-commerce”, the Commission hopes to build on the reform of the European Customs Code to maximise its efforts (see EUROPE 13543/23).
In addition to future customs improvements, the Commission is considering the introduction of large-scale ‘product safety sweeps’, at the initiative of the Member States, which would be coordinated actions with a specific aim, to remove certain problematic products directly at source.
The Commission would also like to introduce a handling fee “proportional to” the value of the item in question, which would “offset” the increase in expenditure on customs controls.
This tax has yet to be determined, during the trilogues on the reform of the European Customs Code, and it will complement the future abolition of the exemption from customs duties for low-value parcels (less than €150).
According to one senior official, “of the 12 million low-value goods entering the EU every day, 91% come from China”.
With regard to the passing on of these taxes, the Commission assures us that they should not affect consumers, but that it will nevertheless be up to the e-commerce platforms concerned to decide whether or not to absorb them.
As for regulating the addictive or problematic patterns of these platforms, i.e. the digital aspect of the problems raised, the Commission is still relying on the strengthened implementation of the DSA (see EUROPE 13516/9, 13447/4, 13371/24).
Although this communication is welcomed by several MEPs, notably from the committee responsible for the internal market, the fact that it lacks concrete elements is also mentioned. “There are few new elements in this communication, which is not binding, but we need to go further”, stressed Saskia Bricmont (Greens/EFA, Belgian).
See the toolbox: https://aeur.eu/f/fdb (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)