December saw the adoption of an own initiative report by the European Parliament entitled “Completing the Digital Single Market”. This report builds on the work done in the EU over the last few years to promote the digital economy and dismantle barriers to a well-functioning internal market. Importantly, it passes on the baton from 2010 and in doing so it calls for renewed efforts in several areas identified as priorities by our Roadmap Towards Commerce 3.0.

Our Commerce 3.0 project rests on economic research which found that web technologies enable small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to reach multiple foreign markets because of lowered information, search and trust costs. This is an important finding and we’ve spent 2012 telling policymakers about the policy implications. We are therefore pleased to see that the Parliament Report specifically calls out that “the benefits of globalisation can be more evenly distributed among consumers and SMEs thanks to the internet and e-commerce” and that “the internet and technology constitute tools enabling the internationalization of SMEs”. This is a good place from which to start adapting world trade rules to be more in line with the interests and concerns of consumers and small businesses.

The Parliament Report points to a number of internal market barriers, many of which are not new but have been on the EU agenda for many years. However, we note that with this Report the proposals for addressing the barriers are becoming more precise. As one of five policy recommendations, our Roadmap calls for simplified VAT administration rolling out the “one stop shop” concept to physical products, at least for SMEs. This proposal is now put forward in the Report, calling on the Commission and EU Member States to “seize the opportunity offered by the 2015 changes to the VAT rules in order to create and extend a ‘European One-Stop Shop’ for e-commerce, at least for SMEs”.

In addition, the Parliament Report shines the light on two issues that are extremely important to the development of the new commerce landscape:

• First, online markets need flexibility: they operate themselves based on agile techniques and thus need policies that smartly and flexibly navigate the needs of experimentation. The need for flexible markets is recognised by the Report.
• Secondly, small retail businesses in particular profit from web-technologies: one way of gaining easy and affordable access to current and developing technology is via online platforms. The European Commission and national competition authorities must vigilantly guard against restrictions placed by suppliers on retailers’ freedom to trade using online platforms, most commonly present in selective distribution systems for popular consumer goods. Rightly so, the Parliament Report calls on the Commission to “ensure that the rules on selective distribution are properly applied in order to avoid abuses and discrimination”.

These two issues should form part of the EU political priorities for 2013.