Digital commerce

There is no universally accepted definition of electronic commerce (or e-commerce). The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) defines e-commerce as follows:

‘An e-commerce transaction is the sale or purchase of goods or services, conducted over computer networks by methods specifically designed for the purpose of receiving or placing of orders. The goods or services are ordered by those methods, but the payment and the ultimate delivery of the goods or services do not have to be conducted online. An e-commerce transaction can be between enterprises, households, individuals, governments, and other public or private organisations. To be included are orders made over the web, extranet or electronic data interchange. The type is defined by the method of placing the order. To be excluded are orders made by telephone calls, facsimile or manually typed e-mail.’

In this subtopic we examine the most common legal issues associated with online commerce in the EU, the legal considerations which arise as a result of trading online and other specific issues which the digital era presents more generally for businesses operating online.

Tracking EU digital commerce developments

The EU has set itself

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Latest EU Law News

EIOPA revokes Guidelines and amends Opinion to align with upcoming DORA

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The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) has published its Single Programming Document for 2024-2026, outlining the organisation's strategic priorities and planned activities for the coming years, including the Annual Work Programme for 2024.EIOPAoutlines the evolving macro-economic, political, environmental, technological and sectoral context impacting its work. This includes factors like economic uncertainty, inflation, digitalisation trends, climate change effects, new regulations like the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), Solvency II review, and the expected growth in EIOPA's tasks.

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