THE European Union may have removed most barriers to physical trade, but online it remains a prime example of provincialism. Digital businesses still have to deal with 28 sets of national contract laws, adding an estimated €4 billion-8 billion ($4.5 billion-9 billion) a year to their costs. Only 15% of European consumers say they have ever crossed an EU border while shopping online. Only 4% of internet traffic from EU countries goes to online services in another European country, whereas 54% of it goes to services in America.
When Jean-Claude Juncker took over as president of the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, in November, he made a unified digital continent the priority of his mandate, hoping to boost growth by €415 billion annually. More quickly than expected, the commission has delivered, at least on paper. On May 6th it published its “Digital Single Market Strategy”.
Much of what the commission proposes in the 20-page document would at least help. It wants to establish common rules for online purchases, integrate telecoms regulations, push postal services to offer better and cheaper parcel delivery across EU borders and reduce the burden on businesses caused by varying VAT regimes. More controversial are the commission’s plans to harmonise copyright law, in particular its plan to ban “geo-blocking”. Europeans are often barred from...
from The Economist: Business http://ift.tt/1cr37ff
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