Meeting at the Competitiveness Council on Wednesday 12 March (see other news), the European Ministers for Industry and Trade spent lunchtime debating the European Commission’s initiative on the problems associated with online commerce (see EUROPE 13572/5).
In February, the Commission published a communication outlining ways of trying to better regulate the flood of goods entering the EU every day from third countries. Most of them are dispatched from e-commerce platforms that do not comply with European legislation or consumer law (see EUROPE 13523/9) and pose problems in terms of fair competition and public safety.
At Wednesday’s Council meeting, the ministers were broadly in favour of the Commission's initiative, while stressing the need to ensure the rapid reform of the European Customs Code.
Last September, several Member States, led by Germany, asked the Commission to tighten controls on certain online sales platforms (see EUROPE 13491/3).
Twelve countries (Romania, Finland, Portugal, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Austria, Estonia, Poland, Belgium, Greece and Luxembourg) had highlighted the “unfair competition” and dangerous nature of the products being sold, whose entry into the EU is facilitated by the exemption from customs duties on packages of less than €150.
According to a report by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), published in November, EU customs prevented almost €3.4 billion worth of counterfeit and potentially dangerous goods from entering the single market in 2023. (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)