Samenvatting

In 2015, the European Commission has outlined the institution’s strategy on reaching a harmonized Digital Single Market by focusing on a set of issues, many of which are targeted towards eCommerce. However, this is a global industry which sparked new technologies, industries, services and products while disrupting others.
Moreover, the strong ties to technology have made eCommerce one of the leading drivers for the development and adoption for new and up and coming technologies and pieces of innovation. As such, it has become increasingly challenging for policy-makers to keep the pace with new technologies.
In this line of thought, nine policy areas (cross-border regulations, cross-border parcel delivery, geoblocking, online platforms, personal data, data economy, competition, and payments) have been assessed through the prism of six - identified - emerging pieces of technology (Internet of Things, drones, BitCoin, 3D printing, arti1cial intelligence, and virtual reality). The goal was to identify where the current legal framework does not facilitate technological innovation, and would impede the large scale adoption of the latest innovations.
The assessment method consisted of a key-hole comparative analysis, whereby selected recitals of EU legal documents have been graded in relation to their uniformity towards the technologies. In addition, industry experts were interviewed to assess the relevance of the identified technologies to the eCommerce industry against the desk research results. Overall, the development and progression of technological innovations within eCommerce (and in general) is impeded by strict, unsubstantiated or technologically incompatible regulation. With a few exceptions, it was shown that this is due to EU laws and principles that create additional and unnecessary burdens to EU eCommerce businesses. The documents falling under the scope of Data Protection along with Parcel Delivery, Data Economy and Geo-Blocking are those creating most barriers. As such, it was concluded that on a larger scale, due to the levels of complexity within each issue require, comprehensive knowledge of both the consumer and the business, as well as entrenched understanding of technology. More practically, a number of positions were recommended in regards to each policy area, as to facilitate technological innovation within European eCommerce.