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~ Go Global Ecommerce ~

E-COMMERCE IN

EUROPE: CHANGES

IN SIGHT IN THE

REGULATORY

SCENARIO

Text: Chiara Mogetti, Journalist and E-commerce Specialist at Go Global Ecommerce // Photos: Shutterstock
Many normative developments in 2022 with the aim of protecting consumers. But attention must be paid to the new obligations.

From the beginning of 2022, a year that appears to be marked by inflation and market
instability right from the beginning, a sequence of directives and regulatory measures are
pushing e-commerce shops to revise their business models in order to avoid incurring
penalties. The legislative intent is to address consumer protection first and foremost, but
among the consequences of this tendency are more demanding obligations for merchants.
The Digital Markets Act, Digital Services Act, Omnibus directives, new measures for the
management and storage of user data and for product packaging: there is a lot of news of

interest to e-shops in 2022. So, what issues will merchants, those who want to keep doing cross-
border e-commerce in Europe, have to pay attention to without running the risk of incurring
penalties by unintentionally breaking the rules?

riteria of fair play and transparency to prevent neither the offers outside of the platform nor
generally guide regulatory intervention. direct contact between their business users and consumers,
CThe Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the the Digital Services Act follows the same path by proposing
Digital Services Act (DSA), in particular, also affect progressive obligations, in proportion to the size of the
smaller retailers, but they want to regulate above company. These obligations will include: for those engaged
all the behaviours of gatekeepers, those very large in digital intermediation, transparency obligations and
operators that stand in an intermediary position reporting of problems, the guarantee that the provision of
between companies and very large numbers of users, services is made in accordance with fundamental rights,
gaining an unbalanced competitive advantage over collaboration with national authorities, the maintenance
other market players, in particular through access of a legal desk in the various territories where services are
to huge masses of data and their monetisation – sold; for those offering hosting services and for digital
Amazon is an example. service platforms, the obligations will include the provision
As a matter of fact, smaller companies are essentially forced of detailed information to users, the provision of complaint
to go through the major platforms to sell products. While mechanisms, the verification of the credentials of third-
the Digital Markets Act tries to make gatekeeper services party suppliers, the provision of a Know Your Business
interoperable – making sure that they will no longer be able Customer protocol — namely, it will be necessary to verify

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