Overview

The European Commission is concerned that the take-up of e-commerce across the EU as a whole is not as high as it had hoped. In particular, the Commission wants to facilitate an increase in the proportion of EU online businesses that engage in cross-border ecommerce.

The Commission was due to announce this month its action plan for updating the Ecommerce Directive and other measures to remove barriers to cross-border ecommerce, but the announcement will now be delayed until December 2011.

The action plan is being formulated in response to a wide-ranging consultation, covering issues including:
• The rule under the Ecommerce Directive that service providers should be regulated by the laws of their home Member State, and the current exemption from this rule that applies to business to-consumer transactions
• The effectiveness of on-line dispute settlement systems
• The safe harbour rules for internet intermediaries