Speaking ahead of the European Parliament’s adoption of a report on platforms drafted by MEPs Henna Virkunnen (EPP-FI) and Philippe Juvin (EPP-FR), EuroCommerce Director-General Christian Verschueren said:
“In the future, platforms will become a more and more important feature in the retail landscape. This will create disruption to some traditional business models, but will also offer new opportunities for innovation and scaling up. Retailers and wholesalers have transformed themselves many times over, in order to meet consumer demand, and are already embracing digital technology to provide what consumers want. But in this, it will be important that competition between bricks-and-mortar retailers, pure player e-commerce companies and platforms is fair. Any policies related to platforms should be developed in a way that helps all retailers of all sizes and channels to meet consumer demand, and which removes unjustified and unfair competitive advantages to any particular retail channel.”
The EP report comes a week after the mid-term review of the EU Digital Single Market strategy, setting out, among other things, the Commission’s further ideas concerning platforms and steps the Commission intends to take. Online platforms are particularly important for SMEs, often providing the easiest first step for small businesses who want to go online and address global markets without excessive investment. SMEs are a vital element of the retail and wholesale sector and play an important role in the development of the digital economy.
The EP report identifies all the key issues that have emerged in relation to platforms and makes a number of useful recommendations for tackling the challenges. EuroCommerce shares much of the EP’s views, in particular on:
- Fair taxation for all players, and removing the small consignments VAT and duty exemption for non-EU imports;
- Ensuring appropriate action against non-conforming and unsafe products sold online;
- Clarifying legal issues around use of customer and sales data, and other competition isues in B2B relations.
An additional area on which we believe urgent action is needed is eliminating distortion in trade caused by the artificially low cost of parcel fees for goods shipped from some third countries, in particular China.