The development of electronic commerce and online services offers enormous potential for beneficial economic, social and societal change. The internet economy creates 2.6 jobs for every “off-line” job lost, and offers a better choice to consumers, including those in rural and isolated areas. The gains brought by lower online prices and a wider choice of available products and services are estimated at €11.7 billion, equivalent to 0.12 per cent of European GDP. If 15 per cent of retail sales were e-commerce and the obstacles to the internal market were removed, the gains for consumers might be as much as €204 billion, or 1.7 per cent of European GDP.
The European Commission, however, said that there are many obstacles preventing consumers and businesses from investing fully in online services: ignorance or uncertainty about the applicable rules, offers that lack transparency and are hard to compare, and payments and modes of delivery that are often expensive and unsuitable.
That is why, as part of the Digital Agenda and the Single Market Act and in response to the request from the European Council to submit a roadmap for the completion of the Digital Single Market by 2012, the Commission has adopted a communication presenting 16 targeted initiatives aimed at doubling the share of e-commerce in retail sales (currently 3.4 per cent) and that of the internet sector in European GDP (currently less than three per cent) by 2015. By that year online trade and services could account for more than 20 per cent of growth and net job creation in some member states (such as France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Sweden).
Michel Barnier, Commissioner for the Internal Market, Neelie Kroes, Commission Vice-President responsible for the Digital Agenda and John Dalli, Commissioner for Consumer Policy, expressed their ambitious objective in these terms: “In the difficult circumstances facing Europe we must seize every source of activity and new jobs as a matter of urgency. The action plan we are presenting today will create new opportunities for citizens and businesses and will bring Europe much-needed growth and employment. It aims to remove the obstacles which until now have frustrated the development of Europe’s internet economy.”
Under the Single Market Act and the Digital Agenda, the communication puts forward an action plan which will facilitate cross-border access to online products and content, ultimately solve the problems of payment, delivery and consumer protection and information, and assist dispute resolution and the removal of illegal content, thus helping to develop an internet that is more secure and more respectful of fundamental rights and freedoms.
The aim is to create an environment more likely to foster a dynamic Digital Single Market by tackling the problems in its path, while promoting investment in wireless connectivity and new-generation fixed infrastructure and supporting the development of cloud computing.
The communication identifies the potential of electronic commerce and online services to account for up to 20 per cent of employment and growth over the next five years. Access to goods and services will also be made easier for geographically isolated or vulnerable people, fostering cohesion across Europe.
It goes on to list the obstacles to the development of the Internet economy: a legal cross-border supply shortage, inadequate information and protection for consumers, inefficient deliveries and payments, illegal content that is still too difficult to manage, and the dangers of the spread of cybercrime.