The European Commission is due to unveil a proposal today that will make it easier and safer for the 27-nation European Union's consumers to shop online across borders, a document obtained by Reuters showed.

About one-third of the EU's consumers, or some 150 million people, already shop on the Internet. But only 30 million of them do it cross-border, and the new rules are intended to encourage more of them to look for goods abroad.

The EU's executive Commission wants to tear down barriers to cross-border goods and services to boost competition, offer businesses a bigger market and cut prices for consumers.

Today's proposal by the bloc's Consumer Affairs Commissioner Meglena Kuneva will guarantee consumers, wherever they shop in the EU, clear information on price and additional charges and fees before they sign a contract.

It will strengthen consumer protection against late delivery and non-delivery and ensure tough EU-wide consumer rights on areas including cooling-off periods, returns, refunds, repairs, guarantees and unfair contract terms.

The rules, which have to be approved by the European Parliament and EU governments to become law, are designed to strengthen protection and close loopholes in key areas that are undermining consumer trust.

The new Consumer Rights Directive will oblige traders to provide consumers with clear information on product, price, and additional freight and delivery charges to allow consumers to make an informed choice.

It sets a maximum of 30 calendar days for a trader to deliver goods to the buyer from signing the contract, and says traders bear the risk and cost of damage or loss of the goods until the moment the buyer receives the products.

It sets a cooling-off period of 14 days, and an easy-to-use standard withdrawal form.

The directive also strengthens consumer protection for online auctions, requiring that they meet standard information obligations.

Two EU-wide Eurobarometer surveys published last week showed that the share of EU consumers who had shopped across the border had not increased since 2006.

The surveys showed that 75 percent of retailers sold only to consumers domestically, but if rules were harmonised, almost half of them would be interested in selling cross-border.