Contribution to the forthcoming
Commission Single Market strategy 2015
POSITION PAPER
Date:
03 July 2015
Interest Representative Register ID number: 84973761187-60 Ilya Bruggeman
Adviser, Internal Market
T: +32 2 738 06 41
xxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxx.xx
EuroCommerce and the retail and wholesale sector
EuroCommerce is the principal organisation representing the retail and wholesale sector. It embraces
national federations representing 5.5 million companies, both leading multinational retailers such as
Carrefour, IKEA, Tesco and REWE and many small family operations. Retail and wholesale provide a link
between producers and 500 million European consumers over a billion times a day. It generates 1 in 7
jobs, providing a varied career for 29 million Europeans, many of them young people. It also supports
millions of further jobs throughout the supply chain, from small local suppliers to international
businesses.
http://www.eurocommerce.eu
In the experience of traders:
authorisation procedures and proportionality assessments for commercial
establishment differ widely. This causes real problems for retailers who want to open
new stores in other markets;
some authorisation procedures and levies (e.g. regional taxes in Spain) deter new
players from entering new markets;
some local authorities still use economic needs tests despite this being prohibited by
the Services Directive;
decision-making is not always transparent e.g. unclear procedures, unclear timelines,
unclear or absence of objective criteria beforehand, no clear explanation of decisions
and with high costs;
the EU notification procedure for national laws within the scope of the Services
Directive is not transparent. It is unclear which and if all relevant laws have been
notified, and if the Commission has followed up comments made with the Member
State;
developments in society influence the retail market at local level and regional level,
this should be reflected in retail establishment policies.
Recommendations:
as part of the Better Regulation agenda the
Commission and Member States
should simplify existing procedures based on the work of the Services Directive
Expert Group;
the Commission should provide guidance on ensuring that any restrictions to
establishment are justified, necessary and proportionate, while respecting the
principle of subsidiarity;
an objective, transparent and non-discriminator approach should form the
basis of all establishment rules and procedures;
the Commission should develop a timeline for follow-up of the peer review among
the Member States to ensure an ongoing process among all the stakeholders to
improve the current situation. This ‘roadmap’ should include:
o
clear goals and actions of how to improve the proportionality assessments of
authorisations for retail establishment
o
regular performance checks of the retail sector
o
development and use principles of good practice
the Commission should make a proposal to make
the notification procedure for
national rules more transparent, accessible for stakeholders and include a
standstill period. This could be modelled on Directive 98/34/EC to prevent non-EU
compliant legislation being adopted.
Equal treatment of all business in the Single Market
Many traders have reaped the benefits of the Single Market in the past decades. They have
invested in new markets, introduced modern retail concepts throughout Europe and are
providing consumers with safe and high quality products and services for the best price. This
has brought a new dynamic to local markets, increasing competition, and offering more
choice and lower prices to consumers.
In the experience of traders:
many Member States (especially in Central and Eastern Europe) have introduced
legislation to the disadvantage of international retailers, which is very often directly
or indirectly discriminating international investors. These laws do not always directly
involve the Single Market, but can have an impact on it, by preventing new players
from entering the market and diminishing competitiveness in the national economy,
thus affecting EU competitiveness overall;
national laws on tax, food and competition often restrict commercial practices that
are legal in other Member States or impose unjustified financial burden to
international retailers.
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Recommendations:
the Commission should together with the Member States involved assess
whether national laws which might be restrictive to cross-border retail are
in line with EU law (non-discriminatory, justified and proportionate)
;
Member States’ national laws should meet Better Regulation Guidelines16,
making laws simpler and reducing regulatory costs;
the Commission should act more rapidly on possible infringement by quickly opening
EU pilot cases and speeding up infringement procedures.
the Commission should use the European Semester and annual country-specific
recommendations (CSR) as an additional opportunity for dialogue between the
Commission and the Member States to address barriers which do not fall directly
under the scope of the single market but hinder competitiveness and market entry.
2.
Streamline and simplify labelling & information
requirements
Labelling & information enables retail and wholesale businesses to convey important
information about the quality and use of products to consumers, professional customers and
competent authorities. Retailers are the closest link to consumers, and directly affected by
labelling rules for their own-brand products. Wholesalers also need to inform their
professional customers who have different information needs from consumers. Competent
authorities also need sufficient information to assess a product’s compliance and to be able
to take action where necessary. Over the years national and EU legislation have imposed
increasing labelling and information requirements, covering such areas as compliance, safety
warnings, energy labels, food content labels, nutrition labels, washing information, country of
origin information, consumer rights information and environmental information, etc.
In the experience of traders:
the multiplicity of requirements causes an information overload for consumers and
unnecessary costs for business (see illustration below). Consumers are not able to
distinguish essential from nice-to-know information, ignore labels or don’t
understand them;
professional customers (businesses) may require technical information but not what
a consumer might need. Professional customers often ignore out of shortage of time,
what have become too comprehensive paper instructions manuals, thus defeating
their objective;
information requirements have not embraced modern technology. Digital technology
offers new ways of providing information; allowing consumers and professional
customers to access information in other ways that suit them (online, mobile phone);
national authorities sometimes use information requirements to restrict market
access to foreign products.
Recommendations:
the Commission should pursue the European Retail Action Plan17 proposal
of
mapping all national labelling requirements for food products and developing
a database listing all mandatory labelling rules at EU and national level;
a similar exercise should apply to non-food products, combined with an
assessment of non-harmonised products. An overview of the situation could provide
guidance for the Commission to create common rules on information requirements;
the Commission could use the results of the audit to
o
undertake a study of consumers’ understanding of symbols used;
o
consider how to use
digital technology to provide information in new
ways; and
16
http://ec.europa.eu/smart-regulation/guidelines/toc_guide_en.htm (17 June 2015)
17 COM/2013/036 final
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the Commission and Member States should use digital technologies to
create better cooperation and communication between all stakeholders.
Market surveillance authorities should develop strong platforms to exchange
information between them and other stakeholders improve trust and improve market
surveillance;
this should include strengthening the Information and Communication System on
Market Surveillance (ICSMS) and the proposed European Market Surveillance Forum
(EMSF) in the Product Safety Package.
4.
Giving businesses (especially SMEs) access to
information
The best way to help businesses (and consumers) fully participate in the Single Market is by
providing them with access to all of the essential information at one digital information
portal. For businesses, this would not only mean becoming active or establishing themselves
(Points of Single Contact), but it would also be about product compliance (e.g. different
Product Contact Points, national labelling and consumer information requirements), redress
(SOLVIT), taxes/VAT, consumer rights, access to consumer & business networks (e.g. CPC
network, Enterprise Europe Network), notification procedures, finding and communicating
with relevant authorities, etc. Especially SMEs could benefit from this.
Experience of traders:
information is scattered across local and national administrations;
not all information can be found online, and where information is present, it is not
always clear where to seek greater clarification;
it is at times uncertain which local requirements apply to products or services which
traders provide;
businesses are unaware of the many online governance tools that can help
them.
Recommendations:
the Commission should streamline online tools for businesses21 by creating a
legal framework that sets the minimum performance requirements for an online
business portal in every Member State regardless of their sector. This portal should
provide the possibilities of finding all relevant information to become active in a
Member State, acquiring all necessary authorisations, interacting with public
authorities, finding redress etc.;
Member States and the Commission should improve the visibility of online
tools for businesses on a national level.
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