The Council has adopted the Regulation on the cross-border parcel delivery
16 April 2018
The cross-border parcel delivery Regulation, adopted on 12 April, supports cross-border e-commerce, enabling consumers and undertakings to compare different prices of delivery in the EU and, thereby, increase consumer confidence in cross-border online shopping.
According to European Commission’s data, more than two-thirds of consumers have resigned from cross-border online shopping, concluding that delivery costs would be too high. It is supported by evidence: the prices of cross-border parcel delivery are on average three to five times higher than the domestic ones.
According to Karol Krzywicki, the Vice-President of the Office of Electronic Communications, high prices of cross-border parcel delivery are nowadays one of the biggest impediments to the development of e-commerce in the European Union. Thanks to the Regulation, the European parcel market should become more transparent and competitive. It will be a milestone for the Digital Single Market strategy, whose anticipated long-term objective is to triple the e-commerce share in total GDP of the European Union.
Operators will be obliged to publish the price lists of basic domestic and international delivery services while the NRA will assess their affordability for consumers. Price lists will be published by the European Commission on a dedicated website, which will enable consumers and undertakings to compare cross-border tariffs.
According to the estimates, with lower cost of deliveries, the value of cross-border e-commerce in the European Union could increase by 4.3 % while the number of undertakings providing e-commerce services would increase by 6.2 %.
The Council’s voting ends the legislative procedure. A signed Regulation will enter into force 20 days after publication in the Official Journal of European Union.