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The single market in the European Union

In May 2015, the European Commission announced a detailed plan for the creation of a Digital Single Market. In October it also took action independently on the traditional market. In light of the announced plan the European e-commerce sector postulate to ensure the consistency of these two initiatives is very important. By Małgorzata Jankowska-Blank, head of the legal department at Gemius.

Sometimes this means it is not possible to make the purchase at all, while other times the customer is redirected to the website intended for users in their country. This very often leads to having to pay more for the goods than in the originally selected shop. By introducing new regulations, the European Commission is showing their commitment to policies for aligning goods pricing. These plans are also associated with changes in copyright law. The Commission is aiming to modernize the legislation in order to limit the differences between national copyright law systems and allow for wider online access to products across the European Union.

However, Ecommerce Europe recommends caution when introducing new regulations and is calling for only unjustifiable practices to be banned. Variation in pricing and conditions of purchase should be allowed if there is an objective reason, underpinned by a pricing policy. The new rules should also lead to the obligation to sell goods across the European Union – internet companies may have many objective reasons not to do so. Similar stipulations also apply to the traditional market. The separation of these two projects is therefore not the optimal solution.

Changes yes, but not separately

The Ecommerce Europe association has acknowledged that the new strategy has the potential to help create a real single European market for consumers and businesses. Experts point out, however, that the new proposals should not create two different legal regimes for the same product sold online or offline. The policy of changes should be consistent.

In the era of the coexistence of fixed sales channels with the ever more profitable sales channels online, introducing two separate regulations would have a negative effect on the development of the entire market.