The aim of the ERGP was to help the European Commission (EC) implement the regulatory aspects of its 2013 roadmap for completing the single market for parcels delivery by providing advice on: (i) the general functioning of European cross-border parcels delivery markets (competitive situation, consumer conditions, possible market failures); (ii) the form (features, feasibility and necessity of different possibilities) that a framework for collecting statistical information on domestic and cross border parcels delivery might take; and (iii) other aspects of the roadmap that concern national regulatory authorities, notably a high-level analysis of consumer complaints related to European cross- border parcels delivery.
As background, the EC is working on building consumer trust in the e-commerce environment, which comprises several aspects (including payment, parcel delivery, transparency, consumer protection and information). The Digital Agenda for Europe, of which the overall aim is to deliver sustainable economic and social benefits from a digital single market based on fast and ultra-fast internet and interoperable applications, fixes thirteen key performance targets, of which one is that 20% of the population will buy online cross-border by 2015.
The EC has released several related documents (January 2012 e-commerce communication on building consumer trust, November 2012 green paper on an integrated parcels delivery market addressing issues specific to delivery to help facilitate e-commerce, December 2013 roadmap for completing the single market for parcel delivery). The current request to the ERGP stems broadly from the same overall aim of creating trust in the single digital market for e- commerce and online services and relates specifically to the role of delivery services in this context. It is based on the actions pertinent for regulators in the roadmap. The EC has highlighted that, while e-commerce is fast growing in all areas, only a limited proportion of online buying is cross-border. It reports, in the Digital Agenda Progress Report, that, on an EU average, cross-border online purchases were made by only 12% of citizens in 2013, noting that smaller member states have higher rates of cross-border shopping and higher growth in this rate.
The aim of the ERGP was not to collect detailed market data (which, as noted in the 2013 report, countries do not generally have for parcel delivery) or to recommend which entity may be best placed to do so, but to provide advice to the Commission on markets and the form its data collection framework could take. The aim was also not to undertake a fully-fledged market analysis of cross-border parcels delivery markets in a competition law sense.
In 2013, the ERGP noted that, at this stage, it had no indication of a specific competition problem on European cross- border e-commerce parcels delivery markets that may be best dealt with by ex-ante regulation. However, it was generally accepted that the market(s) concerned were not well known and that it could be useful to look further (in a limited fashion) at them to better understand them and to ensure they do develop effectively of their own accord.
To assist its consideration, the ERGP sent a questionnaire to its member and observer national regulatory authorities (NRAs) in March 2014, receiving 31 replies. The current report is based on analysis of the replies to the questionnaire and feedback from internal meetings, supplemented by information in certain publically available documents, notably those relating to legal cases or studies on e-commerce and parcel delivery in Europe.
The report focuses on delivery of e-commerce parcels sent by businesses to individuals. It considers markets from a competition law perspective (substitutable offers) and thus is not limited to universal service products or postal market definitions where they are not based on substitutes in a competition law or market analysis sense. If the report looks at markets from a market analysis (substitutes) viewpoint, it remains however a report from the perspective of ex-ante (not ex-post) regulators. The group looks at markets from a European-wide perspective, forms hypothesis and, even in the context of these hypothesis, notes that individual members states may see national specificities in their markets that may lead to different conclusions at a national level. As noted in the 2013 report, it is important to note that the group is looking at European cross border e-commerce parcels delivery markets (for which the buyer of the delivery service is generally the online seller) and not at e-commerce markets per se.