Ecommerce Europe recently had the opportunity to engage in broad discussions on the status of the 2025-2030 Consumers Agenda’s implementation. The Digital Fairness Act (DFA), the review of the Consumer Protection Cooperation (CPC) Regulation, as well as ways to promote sustainable consumption were the main topics addressed during the meeting of the Consumer Policy Advisory Group (CPAG) of 21 May.
The CPAG is an expert group gathering industry, authorities, consumer organisations and the European Commission (EC), and Ecommerce Europe has been an active member since its creation.
On the DFA, we reiterated our view that we do not consider the DFA to be necessary and issues identified in the Fitness Check are mostly related to weak enforcement rather than the lack of sufficient rules. The European Commission took note of our views and stated that they are working towards presenting a balanced legislative proposal. The timeline for its presentation is Q4 2026.
On the CPC however, we are more supportive of the EC’s initiative. Should the CPC be reviewed in such a manner where the EC would be given enforcement powers in consumer law, we consider that this regime should and would help address the issue of non-compliant actors, often based outside the EU, who engage in illegal practices. Also, in case of repeated infringement, the EC should have the possibility to limit their market access.
On sustainable consumption, we informed the EC and other stakeholders that any measures that seek to promote this goal must be balanced out in a way that it does not put at a disadvantage sellers of second-hand products or risk creating unnecessary burdens.
This was the first meeting of the new CPAG, where Ecommerce Europe has been selected to participate for another mandate following the last 5 years. At future meetings, we will continue our engagement with the participants of the group and represent the interests of the e-commerce sector.