The expert group has recently published its recommendations and ecommerce has been identified as one of the main essential themes for improving the retail competitiveness in the European Union, ecommerce-europe.eu reports. Among other things, the expert group found that the current fragmented regulatory framework represents a barrier to the development of cross-border ecommerce.
This is confirmed also by the results of the survey “Barriers to Growth”, performed by Ecommerce Europe at the beginning of 2015, which identified dealing with fragmented legal frameworks one of the TOP-3 obstacles to cross-border online sales.
Therefore, the group recommends a balanced approach towards the protection of personal data and also supports an approach combining the protection of consumers’ personal data from misuse, but allowing online companies more freedom to conduct business in a more balanced manner.
The group also stressed that the fast development of ecommerce has exacerbated the effects of the lack of tax harmonisation in the EU. The group advocates the extension of the destination principle (apply VAT of the country where the consumer is located) to all goods and services sold online, in order to bring clarity and foster fair competition. However, the destination principle should be accompanied simplification measures to support smaller companies which have fewer resources.
Moreover, the group stressed that even though effective methods for e-payments already exist, each Member State has its own payment traditions, which may raise transaction costs and can have discouraging effects on online merchants.
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