Buy your plane ticket online and print your own boarding pass, buy food online, gamble virtually, send money to friends via your mobile phone… The examples are many, but the conclusion is one – the way European and Bulgarian citizens shop and pay has changed dramatically in recent years.
Besides purely practical benefits for users and the e-commerce development, the online services department provides significant potential for economic development. According to research by the European Commission released a few days ago, EU’s Internet economy creates 2.6 jobs for every indoor workplace that has been cut. In 2011 the total market for online sales exceeded EUR200 billion, provided that a year earlier it was EUR169.6 billion. Forecasts of the experts say in 2012 this figure will increase by another 16% hitting EUR232 billion. However, only three countries – Britain, Germany and France, form 71% of online sales on the continent. In many other EU member states, there are problems that still hinder the users to take full advantage of these services. The rules governing the sector are often unknown or cannot guarantee enough security.
To overcome these obstacles in the middle of January the European Commission is to submit to the governments of the separate states a set of 16 specific measures to be considered. The aim is to double the share of e-commerce retail sales by 2015, which is now 3.4%, as well as the proportion of Internet economy to the GDP (currently less than 3%).
In these difficult times for Europe we have to quickly take advantage of all opportunities to create additional jobs, said Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for the digital technologies programme.
The first three steps, which are expected to be enforced, are to check separately each country whether it has properly adopted and implemented the Directive on electronic commerce, then boost protection of online consumers as well as implement a series of regulations to safeguard intellectual property rights and regulate Internet access opportunities. The next steps will be towards improving the awareness of online retailers, as well as protection of their customers. Today, many network operators are not quite aware of the rules governing their activities, mostly the legislation applicable to them abroad, and therefore prefer to restrict sales only to a specific national market. The same is an obstacle for users who fear that if they buy something from a foreign Internet site and a problem occurs, they will not be protected enough.
Special attention will be given to websites that offer customers a comparison of products in terms of price, quality, environmental or energy performance.
Another emphasis is on gambling and betting on the Internet. A few years ago from the 15 thousand plus sites of the site operating on the Old Continent, about 85% had no license issued. Many of them used to collect bets for awhile, and then stopped paying out wins and simply ceased operations. Therefore the European Commission intends to come up with a clear action plan in which to strengthen cooperation between national regulatory authorities and introduce a more effective protection of consumers.
The same measures will be taken for the sale of drugs on the net, which as of this is legalized in Bulgaria, too. For sites offering drugs specific markers for reliability will be developed which will identify them as offering legal medicines. The last set of requirements will be aimed at enhancing the security of payments. Intentions are to create a reliable and transparent integrated payment environment across the European Union, whether it’s shopping with cards in shops or on the Internet.
Within the community the number of payment cards in use has exceeded 700 million; the opportunities that electronic commerce offers are enormous and the number of smartphones is increasing dramatically. Europe has the opportunity to be at the forefront of development of the mere concept of ‘payment’. At the current level of fragmentation of our market, it will be hard for us to achieve this goal. Reliable, efficient, competitive and innovative electronic payments play a crucial role to consumers, retailers and businesses in helping them benefit fully from the advantages of the single market and in promoting the development of electronic commerce, said Commissioner for the Internal Market, Michel Barnier.
According to Vice-President of the European Commission Joaquin Almunia, due to inefficient payment systems in the EU the transaction costs has been unduly increased, undermining the global competitiveness of European economy and limiting its growth potential.
All these factorswill be felt in Bulgaria and their effect can hardly be ignoredeven if the country is at the bottom of the EU’s country list of internet trade volume.
