BAKGRUNN (fra kommisjonsmeddelelsen, engelsk utgave)

This Communication presents a broad and comprehensive package of e-commerce measures through which the Commission is aiming to achieve the rapid removal of barriers to cross-border online activity in Europe. This is a pre-requisite for the full functioning of the Digital Single Market and will help to ensure consumers and businesses get better value and increased choice of online goods and services while providing businesses, particularly start-ups, with new opportunities to scale up across Europe. This package of measures is in line with the call of the European Council for actions to remove the remaining barriers to the free circulation of goods and services sold online and to tackle unjustified discrimination on the grounds of geographic location and with the European Parliament's call for the Commission to dismantle barriers affecting e-commerce in order to build a genuine cross-border e-commerce market in Europe.

E-commerce as a driver for growth
The value of retail e-commerce in the EU grew by 13.7% in 2014 compared with 2013 and reached a total of around €370bn. The average annual growth rate in the period 2000-2014 was 22% . The turnover from e-commerce as a share of total turnover in the retail sector reached 8% in 2015, showing that the dynamism of this form of trade and its contribution to the EU economic growth has to be sustained.

In its Strategy for a Digital Single Market (DSM) the Commission identified a number of areas where immediate action was required to break down barriers to cross-border online activity and to define an appropriate e-commerce framework. Preventing unjustified different treatment of consumers and businesses when they try to buy goods and services online within the EU is one of the key measures. Such discrimination can come in the form of nationality, residence or geographical location restrictions which run counter to the basic principles of the EU. Similarly in its Single Market Strategy , as part of its broader efforts for a fairer Single Market, the Commission announced its intention to fight all forms of unjustified differentiated treatment of purchasers based in different Member States, irrespective of whether they are applied in direct sales or via distribution channels and regardless of how they take place.

Preventing discrimination is not the only solution to removing barriers to cross-border e-commerce. That is why the DSM Strategy also highlighted the need to build consumer trust in cross-border online sales, by ensuring better enforcement of existing rules and the availability of affordable and high quality cross-border parcel delivery services. The Strategy also highlighted the need to reduce transaction costs and other burdens caused by differences in contract law between Member States and to reduce VAT related administrative burden. The Commission's evidence gathering exercises confirmed these as the main issues to be tackled.

This Communication presents a package of measures containing four key DSM proposals to boost the potential for cross-border e-commerce in Europe:

• A legislative proposal on addressing unjustified geo-blocking and other forms of discrimination based on nationality, place of residence or place of establishment within the Single Market;

• A legislative proposal revising the Regulation on Consumer Protection Cooperation;

• A legislative proposal (Regulation) proposing measures in the area of parcel delivery;

• Guidance on the implementation/application of the Directive on Unfair Commercial Practices.

The Communication explains how these four proposals relate to and complement each other and also how they relate to the other DSM proposals with major benefits for e-commerce, namely:

• The two legislative proposals on the supply of digital content and on online and other distance sales of goods which the Commission already adopted in December 2015;

• Upcoming VAT simplification proposals which are envisaged to be adopted in autumn 2016.

Together with existing rules such as the e-Commerce Directive , consumer and marketing law including the Consumer Rights Directive , the newly reformed data protection framework and competition law, these proposals, once adopted, will establish a comprehensive framework for unleashing the potential of e-commerce in Europe for the benefit of both consumers and businesses.

In parallel with the adoption of the e-commerce package the Commission is also presenting a Communication on the results of its comprehensive assessment of the role of platforms and of online intermediaries, as well as its proposal for revision of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD). As regards the former, online platforms have dramatically changed the digital economy over the last two decades and play an important role in the digital value chains that underpin e-commerce in the EU. In order to make the most of the opportunities presented by e-commerce, the EU needs to create the best possible business environment for online sellers, as well as for the online e-commerce marketplaces on which many online sellers rely. In its Communication on platforms the Commission presents its assessment and policy approach to supporting the development of online platforms in Europe.

The proposal for the revision of the AVMSD aims to modernise the rules so as to reflect market, consumption and technological changes. The proposal focuses on the scope of the AVMSD and on the nature of the rules applicable to all market players, in particular those for the promotion of European works, protection of minors, combatting hate speech and advertising rules.