"E-Commerce Must Live Up To Its Promise…"

These are the words of Europe's chief antitrust enforcer, Margrethe Vestager, introducing the Commission's public hearing on October 6, 2016, on its preliminary findings of the e-commerce sector inquiry. The promise of e-commerce alluded to by the Commissioner for Competition means quite simply a wider choice of goods available for purchase online, at lower prices across the EU as well as cross-border access to digital content for consumers in the EU. The major concern for the Commission is that e-commerce still takes place nationally within the EU and not on a cross-border basis across the 28 Member States, because of contractual barriers erected by companies.

This hearing came hot on the heels of the 290 page behemoth Preliminary Report on the e-commerce sector inquiry published by the Commission on September 15, 2016 and reported on in detail in our previous blog. The hearing was an opportunity for the Commission to present its key findings, but its primary purpose