Heightened Antitrust Risk In The EU: Restriction Of Parallel Imports

Earlier today the European Commission's Consumer Affairs Commissioner Meglena Kuneva presented a new report on cross-border e-commerce in the EU.¹ While the report illustrated that online shopping within Europe is increasing, with the internet being the fastest growing retail channel in Europe, it also highlighted that cross-border e-commerce has been slow to develop in the EU. The Commission has announced that it will continue its investigation of how and where consumers are being prevented from shopping on-line across borders.

Given the particularly weak British Pound against the Euro in recent months, conditions are prime for the practice of parallel trading by retailers based in different Member States to take advantage of the exchange-rates. Similarly, European consumers based in continental Europe are able to make significant savings by purchasing exchange-rate dependant bargains from UK-based retailers of the same products available across the channel. This