Regulatory pressure fills e-commerce baskets

During 2024, 1,253 regulations were adopted or amended that have a direct impact on commerce and e-commerce. This represents an average of 3.4 new regulations per day, a figure that raises concerns in the sector due to its volume and complexity. These regulations cover diverse topics such as environment, sustainability, labelling, traceability, cybersecurity, data protection, transparency in consumer information and more.

Online commerce operators report that this regulatory overload hinders their daily operations and, in many cases, slows down their competitiveness and innovation. Continuously adapting to regulatory changes involves significant financial and human resources, which is particularly challenging for SMEs, which do not have the legal teams and structure of large companies.

In addition, it is mentioned how certain obligations, such as waste management, packaging or the circular economy, mean an extra effort for platforms and distributors, who must adjust their logistics and labelling models within very tight deadlines. Sales platforms are also being affected by European regulations such as the DSA (Digital Services Act), which imposes greater responsibilities on them in terms of content moderation and the supervision of sellers.

The article also highlights growing concerns about the lack of coordination between administrations and the lack of regulatory harmonisation between European countries, which further complicates the international expansion of online businesses.

Although the aim of many of these regulations is to protect consumers and promote fairer and more sustainable trade, the sector is calling for greater clarity, more reasonable deadlines and a simplification of regulations so that it can comply without jeopardising the viability of its operations.

This is explained by Juan Carlos Guerrero, partner at TMT, in an article published in ABC.