Working Party on Consumer Protection and Information in Europe

Working Party on Consumer Protection and Information

The working party deals with issues in the area of consumer policy. It takes decisions on issues such as the EU consumer policy programme and various other legal acts in the area of consumer protection. The group prepares Council conclusions and recommendations in this policy area.

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Online Purchases and Consumer Rights in the European Union

The steady progression of technology, in the form of digital communications and internet, is on its way to utterly transforming our lives forever. Internet will change the way we conceive social life but also the way we interact economically. It will transform the economic environment of individuals and dramatically expand their range of opportunities.

Unfortunately, the EU-wide market at retail level does not yet exist, even when online cross border shopping should be practically costless. This greatly diminishes the opportunities available to consumers and the incentives for business to grow. Only one in five people who shop online ventures beyond national borders. The number of consumers using the internet for domestic purchases increased from 23% to 30% between 2005 and 2008, but cross-border online purchasers only rose from 6% to 7% for the same period.

Two-thirds of Europeans think there are more potential problems in making cross-border purchases rather than domestic purchases. Businesses themselves face real barriers to serve cross border.

Large businesses often sell across the Union but in a fragmented way. Some take advantage of borders to price discriminate across the EU.

The internal (B2C) business to consumer market is incomplete. Cross-border retail competition is weak and there is only limited pressure on traders to harmonise retail prices across Europe. Consequently, large differences exist between average price levels of the individual EU Member States which consumers could take further advantage of.
The price differences are striking for particular products that can be normally be bought online either domestically or cross-border.