The European Union is setting its sights on online commerce, supposedly in a bid to help remove barriers to cross-border trade across the EU - just two months after introducing VAT rules that have widely discouraged small traders from selling outside their home geographies.
Competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said that the investigation into online commerce, announced this week, would examine the barriers to the growth of e-commerce across the EU, and could lead to action against companies that deliberately block online sales, according to newswire Reuters.
"It is high time to remove remaining barriers to e-commerce, which is a vital part of a true Digital Single Market in Europe," Vestager told reporters at a press conference on Thursday. The investigation would report in mid-2016, she added.
The day before, the European Commission said that it would unveil plans to remove barriers to online commerce in a bid to "promote the growth in the digital economy". The European Commission believes that many big companies persist in charging different amounts for the same goods in different countries across the EU, and prevent retailers from sourcing and selling at the lowest prices.
However, this new initiative comes in the aftermath of new VAT rules that, it is claimed, have widely discouraged small traders from performing cross-border trades in the European Union.
Intended to stop companies from claiming domicile in a low-VAT jurisdiction in the EU, the new rules demand that any company selling anywhere in the European Union charge the rate of VAT prevailing in the jurisdiction of the customer, not the vendor.
The EU rules also hit VAT-registered freelancers and consultants bidding to work across Europe.
The practical result, though, is that the EU has now made online vendors across Europe subject to VAT rules in 28 different states - including such notoriously corrupt countries as Greece and Romania - and responsible for registering for, and paying VAT, to the appropriate tax authorities in each of those countries.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Graeme Burton
Quelle/Source: Computing, 27.03.2015
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