In early February, the Commission released its comprehensive strategy to address the challenges arising from the rapid increase in e-commerce imports into the EU directly to consumers. The strategy aims to enhance consumer protection and safety, sustainability and fair competition.
The proposed measures include, e.g.,:
- the removal of the duty exemption for low-value imports,
- targeted measures for imported goods, including coordinated customs controls and coordinated actions on product safety,
- measures to protect consumers on online marketplaces,
- the use of digital tools to facilitate supervision, such as AI web crawlers to detect potentially non-compliant products, and
- measures on environmental protection, such as calling for the adaptation of the amendment to the Waste Framework Directive.
The strategy can be found here.
