Affordable parcel delivery for all Europeans

Today, the European Parliament’s Transport Committee voted in favour of a Regulation to boost cross-border parcel delivery services for e-commerce in the internal market. The text, which passed with a large majority, contains provisions to improve the transparency of prices of cross-border parcel delivery services. The EPP Group’s Shadow Rapporteur Markus Ferber MEP said: “This is a sound and balanced approach to tackle excessive costs and a lack of transparency when it comes to cross-border delivery of items bought and sold online. Consumers should have better access to information when choosing their delivery service.”

Key provisions of the new Regulation are reporting obligations for all market players on their prices and delivery options and the empowerment of national authorities to identify and tackle unreasonably high cross-border prices of national incumbents. Ferber continued: “The new provisions will ensure a level playing field and high-level parcel delivery services within the universal services obligation. This will be crucial to sustain the explosive growth of the parcel delivery market in a fair and balanced way.”

With the digital market booming, parcel deliveries across Europe already count for more than 4 billion parcels every year. However, choices for online consumers and small businesses, especially in remote and sparsely-populated areas, remain limited. “Europeans will be able to choose between suitable comparable options and we will be unlocking the potential of the Digital Single Market to the benefit of citizens in Europe”, Ferber concluded.