Online Trade, Offline Rules – a Review of Barriers to e-commerce in the EU
Claims about the borderless nature of the internet are only true to a certain extent. For instance, looking at business-to-consumer e-commerce in Europe, statistics show that – far from having achieved a Digital Single Market – the EU is still fragmented into 28 online markets. Although an increasing number of European consumers shop online (47%), a small minority (12%) do so from sellers established in other EU States. The National Board of Trade has published a review about the legal barriers on both national and European level which have an impact on e-commerce in the EU. The report states that the among the many reasons behind this fragmentation are trade barriers in the form of national requirements which oblige e-traders to adjust their businesses for each new market they wish to serve.