Laws and regulations

The Belgian government is considering labor market reform measures that will give ecommerce companies opportunities to work between 20:00 and midnight. It seems that the reform will meet some discussion. Chairman of the Belgian Socialist Party Paul Magnette has said in an interview that he wants Belgium to be a country without ecommerce.

Swedish comparison shopping service PriceRunner is suing Google for promoting its own shopping comparisons in search results. The company is demanding a compensation of 2.1 billion euros. Google Shopping has already been fined for its actions in Europe in 2017.

Ecommerce businesses that ship to customers within the EU need to comply with VAT rules. These rules apply to all member states. But what happens when shipping to a state that's not a member?

According to new European rules, customers have a product guarantee up to 2 years. When the product breaks, retailers are not allowed to ask for a usage fee. But with longer guarantee periods in Finland and the Netherlands, this can cause problems for online merchants.

According to research by the European Commission almost two thirds of online shops and platforms triggered doubts about the reliability of consumer reviews. In 144 out of the 223 websites checked, authorities couldn't confirm that businesses were doing enough to ensure authentic reviews.

Amazon has received a record fine of 1.13 billion euros by Italian market authority AGCM. The ecommerce giant’s logistics service Fulfilment by Amazon has abused its market dominance and disadvantages competitors too greatly, according to the regulator.

As of this week, Dutch online retailers have formed an employer's organization called E-commerce Netherlands. The organization is supposed to strengthen the branch, which is growing quickly. It will also bring Dutch ecommerce closer to forming a collective labor agreement.

In a joint statement, several French ministers call for a boycott on Wish. The biggest search engines and comparison apps in France should remove Wish from their search results. The group of ministers are calling for this boycott due to the amount of counterfeit products on the marketplace.

Ecommerce Europe and EuroCommerce, the biggest branch organizations for European online retail, call on the European Union to issue a unified VAT registration. Companies that sell cross-border can already register for taxes via one EU-country. However, this does not apply to those stocking goods in multiple countries, the organizations say.

Ecosistant, a consultancy startup for recycling compliance from Germany, offers extra guidance for online fashion retailers. The service is a response to new recycling laws from the European Union (EU). In addition to packaging and electronics, the company now advises on textile waste as well.

Eight leading European ecommerce platforms, including Booking.com, Zalando and Bol.com, urge the European Union to reconsider the definition of ‘active end users’ of their services. They write this in a letter to the EU with regard to the proposed Digital Markets Act (DMA), which aims to regulate big tech companies.

Amazon has been hit with a fine from the European Union. They will need to pay 746 million euros for processing personal data that's in violation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The tech giant is already planning to appeal against the decision.

New VAT ecommerce rules have come into force on the 1st of July. Now, all imported goods – also the ones worth less than 22 euros - are taxed with VAT. For dropshipping ecommerce companies things could get more costly, but not for retailers using dropshipping platforms that work with stock based in Europe like BigBuy. Ecommerce News Europe spoke with CEO Salvador Esteve.

EU4Digital, an initiative to extend the European Digital Single Market to Eastern Europe, has launched an ecommerce pilot between Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Germany. Its goal is to increase ecommerce volumes.

The Treasury, the UK's economic and finance ministry, is exploring options for an online sales tax. With this measure, it wants to shift the balance between spending online and in physical stores. British high streets are currently struggling due to the Covid-19 pandemic.