Online shopping across European borders about to get easier

Consumers will soon be able to make cross-border online purchases throughout Europe more easily. MEP Anneleen Van Bossuyt was among those at the European Parliament taking the lead to enforce this: “If we want a well-functioning internal market, consumers must be able to shop more freely in their search for the best offers.” The new rules do still offer vendors the option of deciding which markets they want to focus on specifically, which prices they want to apply and whether they want to provide deliveries abroad or not.

“Consumers often experience problems when they want to purchase something online in a different EU Member State,” Anneleen Van Bossuyt explains. “They cannot complete their purchase or they are redirected to their own national web page when opening a foreign website. Thanks to this new legislation, consumers can from now on open the web page that they prefer. The good thing about it is that merchants can still redirect consumers to the web page that they believe offers them the best experience. But they must always inform consumers when they do so. A Flemish consumer who would rather open the foreign web page instead of the Flemish one will from now on be able to do so without any problem.”

Consumer protection

The seller does retain the freedom of deciding which markets it wants to focus on specifically and what prices it wants to apply: “two crucial elements,” says Anneleen Van Bossuyt. “I advocated strongly for them at all stages of the negotiations. After all, some vendors absolutely do not want to sell to consumers in the whole European Union. Making products and services available to a much wider public namely involves a whole raft of challenges, particularly in the field of consumer protection.”

Delivery conditions

Finally, the merchant is also free to decide whether or not it wants to deliver abroad. “A little Flemish company does not always have the logistics resources to supply, say, Poland,” Anneleen Van Bossuyt says by way of example. “Consumers can, however, always agree with merchants that they will come and pick up the purchased goods in the merchant’s Member State. Or consumers can themselves organise and pay for delivery costs as from the border of the merchant’s Member State to the desired address in the consumer’s own Member State.”