Working to break down online barriers
December 11, 2008
(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
Loading ...Some of you have complained through this blog that you cannot buy over the internet from certain stores located in other EU countries. I share your frustration. The Internet has the potential to bring the single European market to a whole new level, and to provide consumers with the chance to buy the very best that is on offer within the EU in terms of choice, price and quality.
But the fact is that although a third of EU citizens already shop on the internet, only 7% shop online from other Member States than their own. Most people still lack the confidence or the information to take advantage of the many good deals and choices abroad.
I have made tackling the problem of online barriers one of my main priorities. In October, I presented a proposal to bring together the most important consumer rights under one single, simple set of rules that will apply throughout the EU. This will allow consumers and traders to shop and sell cross-border with greater confidence, because there won’t be so many different rules and laws to contend with.
Other barriers to a fully fledged online single market include differences in national copyright laws and levies, divergent billing and VAT requirements, or simply down-right discrimination by certain firms against customers on the basis of nationality.
In January, I will publish a report on the realities of cross-border e-commerce for consumers in Europe and investigate what the real barriers to shopping online in another Member State are. Once the problems are identified, they are easier to resolve. We are building a Europe for citizens. An important part of this is granting European consumers access to a market of 500 million people and hundreds of thousands of traders, where they can find what they need, when they need it, and at the best price possible.
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December 13th, 2008 at 12:37 am
Good luck in this very important area ! e-commerce is vital for Europa and the whole World , with broadband - fixed and mobile - we have a chance to really create new wealth and new jobs , new businesses and solutions, from Health-Care video-conference and cut costs to education, training, to trading goods , to selling our own products online,it’s vital .
but many of us are very concerned with security:
a) security systems cannot make more difficult internet commerce , while at the same time we must know who controls our data,personal info.,etc.
b)and i say this because we are seeing a concentration trough mergers in companies providing security pass-codes,physical access to computers, data-bases ,networks and also buildings , be intelligence or banking or law enforcement,with smart cards, smart chips and biometric systems,facial recognition, finger ID, iris ID, etc., and the question is : since many companies merging are also selling security systems, do we know who they are ?
are we heading into a Monopoly of security systems? key companies are buying key companies, what’s going on ?
who controls the watchers? who watches over these security systems ? since we are human, corruption and greed must be in the equation, who watches over them ? a very difficult question, so your job requires amazing balance, the key is to let internet trade, commerce and markets grow while making sure fraud stays out, a very difficult challenge, so the best to you all.
December 13th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
Hi! I want to know if ,from 2009 I could buy from amazon.co.uk.? I’m from Romania and some goods (electronics equipment from example )
isn’t delivered to my country ..Your proposal was approved?
December 14th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Dear Commissioner Kuneva,
As both an economist pursuing research on electronic commerce and an EU citizen, I believe that there is vast potential in unlocking pan-European Internet retail, and that consumers stand to benefit the most.
I suspect, however, that current legal differences across Member States and consumer trust are insufficient to explain online barriers within the EU, particularly for physical goods. Market segmentation strategies at the national level pursued by upstream suppliers and inefficient cross-border logistics are probably playing a major role.
It is encouraging that the Commission has made a priority of removing online barriers, and I congratulate you for your initiative in this area. I also hope the determination to achieve this goal reaches beyond updating consumer rights, and considers revising vertical restraints and applying antitrust provisions where necessary. The challenges ahead cannot be underestimated.
Best regards,
Andres Hervas-Drane
December 15th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
Commissioner,
Congratulations on your blog, which I have followed with great interest. It is fantastic to see the Commission engaging with individual citizens.
It is also heartening to hear that you have decided to investigate “the realities of cross-border e-commerce for consumers in Europe and investigate what the real barriers to shopping online in another Member State are”. By now it is obvious that regulation is not a catalyst for such trade. However, the Commission can play a role in facilitating the analysis and perhaps the resolution of the root practical causes of why it appears to be growing so slowly - if that is truly a problem in itself.
Of course, there is no single “e-commerce market”. Rather, every market has its online segment, and each develops differently from its offline counterpart as well as online segments of markets for other products. Drawing together the “vertical” analysis may help identify which areas of e-commerce may be more ripe for early progress and/or especially difficult practical problems on which work/education needs to start now if a market is to materialise in the longer term. For example, it is worth considering that the May 2007 study by Civic Consulting revealed the main barriers to a single European market for consumer credit to be “different language and culture; consumers’ preference for national lenders; credit risk for lenders – no access to creditworthiness information; problems related to tax, employment practices etc.; difficulties to penetrate local market; different consumer demand in different Member States; lack of consumer confidence in a brand; differing stages of development of consumer credit; and lack of adequate marketing strategies.” The study concluded that “a single market for consumer credit cannot be expected to be created by harmonisation of legislation alone, and this is a long term rather than a short or medium term perspective.”
December 17th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
Dear Commissioner,
First, I would like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to express myself on an issue that I see as unfair on the commercial point of view.
More and more, stores use the services of a private subcontractor to deal with the requests of the consummers wanting to get the VAT back when they travel.
I am not against to the existence of such subcontractor even if I think that it is the role of the State to proceed to the legitimate reimbursement. We have to pay it taxes. It is its role to pay-back theses taxes when by its rules !
My complain is mainly about the subcontractor playing the role of the State : first, it is outrageously expensive (their costs are particularly high) and there is no alternative for the consummer to chose another way to get his VAT back. It is this way or nothing.
Secondly, it is the third time that I don’t received the VAT (even partly) back from Tax Global Refund although I live outside the EU and the applications were correctly introduced. The complains have no effect. Their count on the fact that the consummer doesn’t live in the EU and he won’t come back to the EU only to get his VAT back. It is not fair at all.
I hope that you could do something on this issue.
Best regards,
PB
December 21st, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Dear Commissioner,
The issue is not that we can’t buy over the Internet from some EU stores, but that we are not calm enough to do such kind of e-transactions without worrying of our money. Right, the main thing is the security of our plastic card info. The e-commerce is the space shuttle of the commerce. As such, in this high-tech way of shopping the main question is how we can regularly take our shop therapy with any damage to our actives? We want to be upright – to pay by giving personal bank info – and at the same time we want the same from the opposite party – the product without any abuse concerning our info!
I have several friends who’ve suffered from such disloyal tradesmen. Fortunately, we had happy end. This is way, despite having several plastic cards I rarely, really rarely, use them. I’m afraid that my little big ‘fortune’ will disappear…
Certainly, I have a friend of mine who is laughing very sincerely of my view about e-commerce. This is because she doesn’t have any problems over the net yet. And I hope she never had.
So is not so much about barriers in shopping online in another MS, but are we secure enough to do it without any worries?
Sorry to say it, but in this case we need protection, not empowerment, not yet.
R,
a
December 28th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
I am contacting you to complain about the implementation of the internal market for cross-border online purchases.
Lets examine the Business-to-Consumer (B2C) relationship.
- What are the reasons for person located in Romania to purchase something from a german shop? Bigger choice and/or lower price (even after the bigger transport cost is added). This is a standart example when the free movement of goods, one of the fundamentals of the EU is showing its advantages. This is also the least controversial of the “four freedoms” (in contrast to free movement of workers for example).
- What is the way for a person located in Romania to purchase something from a german shop? Trough the shop’s Web-site, using credit card for payment and some shipping company services for the delivery.
Problems that I encounter when I try to order something from a shop in another EU/EEA member state:
1. Some shops implement IP-adress filtering - they show different products and/or prices depending on the country of the user - if I use Romanian IP I will not get access to the same products/prices as customers with german IPs.
2. Some shops do not accept payment with credit cards registred in some member countries (eg. german shop not accepting valid romanian credit card with enough funds inside).
3. Some shipping companies does not provide the same service to all member states (eg. Cash-on-Delivery is provided only for UK and France, but not for Finland and Greece).
I have experienced various combinations of the above mentioned “blockings”. For example a shop does not accept my credit card and the only option for payment remains cash-on-delivery. But then the shipping company does not provide this service into my country of residence. I even suggested to them to pay in the local office in advance both the goods value and the transport cost and then to wait for them to go get the equipment and ship it back, but such arrangement was also not accepted.
I think that the first two problems can be solved easily (in the EU legislation should be added bans to “compulsory IP filtering for online shops”, and to “denial of payment with valid card from EU/EEA member states”) and the third will then also be not so hard to overcome - if ordering and payment are no problem, then the shops will just have to get from the shipping companies pricelist for delivery to the 30 EEA member states and the cost will be added to the payment.
For Customer-to-Customer (C2C) relations (e.g. auction sites like ebay) there is similar problem - “shipping only to Germnay”, but I don’t know if the C2C deals are in the scope of community law.
In conclusion, as citizen of the EU and as customer I feel discriminated against my nationality/residence (not accepting my credit card, online shops having different prices/content availible) and I find that I can not participate on equal terms in the internal market (e.g. buy goods from other member states’ online shops). I am forced to buy at much higher price in local shops and/or to buy products of worse quality again in the local shops.
I find it very strange that I can not buy, even I am willing to pay 100% in advance, including bigger transport cost (compared to that inside the shop’s home country). It looks like for consumers there is no “common market”, but 27/30 purely national markets. I don’t think that this situation helps to increase competition in both choice and pricing.
Recently, there was some push for “consumer rights protection”, where online shops would be burdened with additional responsibilities for product return, warranty, “no-advance-payment”, etc. I don’t think that such policy is helpfull or at least the timing is wrong - when it is not even possible to do a cross-border online purchase in many shops - there are no consumers and thus practicaly no rights to protect in these cases. I think that EU legislation (such with direct enforcement, without requirement for local parliaments entacting that takes much time and in many cases is not implemented properly) should be made to first make cross-border shopping possible, and after that basic thing is accomplished, only then may the online shops be burdened with additional responsibilities (because I think that currently one of the reasons for the shops to deny service to customers from other member states, than their host country, is that they have to deal with these additional responsibilities).
As a final note - I want to stress that here I am not speaking about products, covered by special regulations - excise goods (alcohol, tobaco, fuel), pharmaceuticals, copywrighted materials, etc. The problems arise with simple goods like consumer electronic equipment, clothes, furniture, etc.
PS. The above mail was written before I reached your site and I readed that you are already engaged in the matter - I was very happy to see that you are already making steps in correcting the above-mentioned problems, so I hope for some improvements in this field soon.
Where can we read your October proposal, or another ECommission-document about online shopping barriers?
Best Regards and keep up the good work!
January 3rd, 2009 at 9:33 pm
Dear Commissioner,
I find your initiate very wellcome and have a a few example I will suggest you include in your considerations, as it seems to me to be more protective messurements than anything else.
1) If you look at Denon, they sell amongst things sourround receivers. In Denmark where I live, the price is up to 40% higher than in UK and Germany. I can walk into a shop in these two countries and buy a receiver, but I can not do it over the web. In UK Denon has a contract with anyone the sell through where you must go to a shop in order to get the product you want, since it needs the help from an authorized person in the shop. In Greece you can buy it to the list price over the internet. In UK however you can find it 40% less expensive advertised over the internet - for UK citizens only. I then tried Amazon.DE. the reson for not selling from Germany to Denmark was: ‘Unfortunately, due to outstanding copyright and guarantee issues, we are currently unable to deliver products from our “Elektronik & Foto” store to delivery addresses outside Germany.
This is because the guarantee is treated different in other European countries than in Germany.’
Another issue is, when you buy a product in you own country via the chanels which is not the international company channels, you are less protected as consumer, if it is parallel import from another EU country. This is probably what AMAMZON is referring to indirectly. It makes no sense at all
January 22nd, 2009 at 4:39 pm
Hi - I’m from Ireland, and we are often refused internet service by UK based companies, and for no good reason. I recently attempted to buy on-line from Austin Reed, the clothing group. here is their reply:
Thank you for your online order with Austin Reed.
Unfortunately we are unable to deliver outside of the UK and therefore, I have had to cancel the order.
–
No explanation whatsoever - we don’t deal with “foreigners”.
I also frequently get junk mail (both electronic & post) inviting me to purchase books from the UK, and telling me that, being Irish, the invitation does not extend to me. You might ask why the sent the main in the first place.
Eoin
February 19th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
Hi Madam Kuneva,
I would like to share my personal experience with you as you have mentioned so many things about online barriers within Europe. I find my situation (any many other non-EU citizens) very discomforting.
I have moved to Germany due to my marriage with my German husband. We would like to have a nice and comfortable home in the heart of Berlin. While shopping at an international furniture store (I am sure you know which store I am refering to), I was being told by the cashier that credit cards are not accepted. I felt very confused because my credit card was actually issued by the same furniture store in my country (it is a premium credit card). So we left cancelling most of the items in the cart as I didn’t have so much cash with me at that time.
Moving on. Then we had this brilliant idea to purchase our home furniture and especially electronic products over the internet as we can see if they do (or do not) accept credit cards before placing an order.
We have our eyes on a television set that we really want to have. Since we are in Germany and we don’t want to go through the hassle of taxes and warranties, we decided to purchase it from German online shops.
Having tried more than 5 shops, they have declined my credit card saying that they only accept German credit cards. I spent an average of 2 hours on the phone with each of the shop demanding the reason why they don’t accept my credit card. All the excuse that they can give me is that it is their company’s policy. Until now, we still haven’t bought a television set yet.
What I want to say is (I can only quote Germany as I do not have similar experience elsewhere in the EU), many people are complaining that it is unsafe to purchase over the internet. I on the other case, is trying to purchase over the internet, but is being rejected because I have a foreign credit card. Many of your commentors also mentioned that it is almost impossible to purchase an item and deliver it to a foreign country. I myself, I now live in Germany, and I still can’t purchase (almost) anything with my homeland’s credit card despite willing to provide all security informations that they need for verification.
I feel that I am being discriminated as a foreigner in Germany. Many of the customer care personnel tell me to pay either with a German credit card or pay per cash. German credit card - I don’t have, why should I apply for so many credit cards when my VISA is accepted worldwide. Cash - I refuse to pay for a non-perishable item with cash. E.g. If I buy the television set with cash, what happens when a few days later the television is spoiled and the company has bankrupted? How do I get my money back? With a VISA credit card, I have more consumer protection as VISA would return (maybe not 100%) my money and deal with the merchant on my behalf.
I am now in Germany and I am unable to purchase basically anything without cash over the internet. From my personal experience to the world out there, it is definately safer to do transactions over the internet with credit card than cash. Where there is a credit card transaction, there’s a trail. Cash - you can’t trace it down.
Back to the point, you are mentioning that you want to break down the barriers between countries within Europe. What about just foreigners living in the same country itself?
Nevertheless, your blog is very appealing to me (especially having gone through such a situation) and if you ever need a case study or assistance in research, do let me know. You know where to contact me.
March 11th, 2009 at 11:30 am
Dear Ms.Kuneva,
I’ve recently faced an unfair and discriminating treatment by an online store related to significant price differentiation among EU countries. Please advise me where I can submit an official complaint.
Best regards!