Call for fair competition with regard to 3rd country platforms

Key points

The EESC:

• notes with concern that the expansion of third-country e-commerce platforms such as Temu and Shein creates significant challenges regarding fair competition, consumer protection and regulatory compliance;
• to protect our single market, calls for speedy implementation of the Commission’s EU toolbox for safe and sustainable e-commerce and for a coordinated approach and stronger enforcement of existing rules at EU, national and regional level;
• advocates implementing the EU customs reform as quickly as possible, in particular the part concerning e-commerce, and urges the EU Member States to immediately give the Commission a mandate to develop the customs data hub;
• insists that all third-country platforms appoint an EU-based responsible economic operator with full legal liability and be recognised as central actors in the supply chain return procedures;
• calls for stronger enforcement of consumer protection laws and the Price Indication Directive in response to repeated violations by non-compliant platforms which, moreover, also neglect EU waste and packaging rules, shifting disposal costs to others;
• proposes a series of concrete short-, medium- and long-term measures that will lead to fair competition and thus meet the requirements for a social market economy as laid out in Article 3.3 TEU.

For more information, please contact INT secretariat