Commission Announces E-Commerce Sector Inquiry

Keywords: European Commission, Geo-Blocking, Sector Inquiry

On 26 March 2015, the EU Commissioner in charge of competition policy, Margrethe Vestager, announced plans to inquiry into the e-commerce sector. The possibility of conducting sector inquiries is provided for in Art. 12 of Council Regulation 17/62 which allows the commission to conduct a general investigation into an economic sector "[i]f in any sector of the economy the trend of trade between Member States, price movements, inflexibility of prices or other circumstances suggest that in the economic sector concerned competition is being restricted or distorted within the common market".

The proposed sector inquiry comes after the Commission's believes that the e-commerce market is not working as well as it should, and that breaches of competition law might be a contributory factor. While the Commission's primary focus would be on restrictive contractual provisions, it is also expected to look at technical