European Commission releases public consultation: why is the development of retail e-commerce still limited?

In Europe, 10 years after the adoption of the Electronic Commerce Directive, “the development of retail electronic commerce remains limited to less than 2% of European total retail trade”, according to the European Commission. In this respect, the executive body of the European Union has launched a public consultation, asking retailers, governments, telecoms companies and the public to express their position regarding the the limited takeoff of electronic commerce in Europe.

The EC is inviting interested parties to express their point of view regarding the situation of the implementation of the Directive on electronic commerce which aims to remove barriers to the establishment of providers of information society services and to the cross-border provision of online services in the internal market. The Commission also expects reactions and opinions on a number of subjects:

• The level of development, both national and cross-border, of information society services.
• Contractual restrictions on cross-border online sales.
• Cross-border online commercial communications, in particular by the regulated professions.
• The development of online press services.
• The interpretation of the provisions concerning the liability of intermediary information society service providers.
• The development of online pharmacy services
• The resolution of online disputes.

The Commissions consultation is open until 15 October 2010.

In May 2010, the European Commission released a digital agenda set to improve cross-border e-commerce transactions within the EU and decided to implement a series of measures to eliminate the regulatory barriers that hold back European businesses from trading cross-border. According to a report on cross border consumer e-commerce published in October 2009, 60% of cross border transactions could not be completed by consumers because the trader did not ship the product to their country or did not offer adequate means for cross border payment.