EU planning to kill small online businesses?

Sparhawke

What do you think of the latest European idiocy?

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61H3AN20100218

fiddiwebb

Well that's that for eBay's vision of a stripmall

'bout time eBay got back to what it used to be.....a fun place to sell & buy.

I've said before that eBay should divide the site, one site for the business seller with all the rules that go with selling as a business and one for the private, hobbyist seller at the moment to many BINs and the private seller being pushed out of the door.

Richie-from-the-Boro

I'm over 70, I remember when almost all people said it won't take off.

- eCommerce is good for me the buyer, real armchair power has defeated retailers and shareholders alike, let them all go woolies, the AA etc

- I'm now active not passive, I can do a hundred shops an hour on the net and get the cheapest / best product next day, and didn't go far from by bacon buttie & proper coffee

- I have muscle and control over my spend, that power was held by the shops, now it's all mine, all mine

- like all things there are as many bad net sellers as there were useless shop based retailers

fiddiwebb's contribution I agree with, e-bay is not a retailer it's an auction site. It should be one or the other or a clearly demarcated separate both.

I'm a 100% against ' brick-and-mortar ' provision which gives power and pricing back to the retailer and not the consumer, but ;

100% for the proposition that e-bay should go back to being an auction site, businesses putting up an auction for a hundred quid item with a starting / reserve price of £99.99 is not an auction.

jbreckmckye

I suspect that this comes less from the apocryphal 'Euro-union Idiocy' and more from the commercial sector putting pressure on Brussels.

cit_k

I guess whoever has the biggest pockets, the online only guys, or the bricks and morter guys, to bride the politicians with will win in the end.

jbreckmckye

There are plenty of opportunities for the commercial sector to pressure governments that are far more visible and legal than covert bribery...

Sparhawke

jbreckmckye wrote: »

I suspect that this comes less from the apocryphal 'Euro-union Idiocy' and more from the commercial sector putting pressure on Brussels.

The issue I have with it is what right does some committee I have never heard of or elected have to say that I should be shut down simply because I balk at paying an unnecessary brick and mortar tax before I can buy or sell anything at all?

And this goes beyond Ebay, it is just that they have the power to be heard, as I understand it this is for everyone, including Amazon people who happen to sell books on their site just as another example.

Two of the seminal internet companies in the world who started it all are really the only ones with the power to tell the commission where to shove it

DVardysShadow

jbreckmckye wrote: »

I suspect that this comes less from the apocryphal 'Euro-union Idiocy' and more from the commercial sector putting pressure on Brussels.

Yes, it does sound like a 'Europe demands straight bananas' tale.

Sparhawke wrote: »

The issue I have with it is what right does some committee I have never heard of or elected have to say that I should be shut down simply because I balk at paying an unnecessary brick and mortar tax before I can buy or sell anything at all?

We only have the Reuters tale, not the draft regs. This may actually be something really sensible along the lines of 'Online businesses must have a bricks and mortar address through which contact can be made' - thus banning businesses from hiding behind the internet.

If it is as I suggest, then there is no story, but Reuters will get more coverage if it has some EU 'straight bananas' spin.

PROLIANT

This is crazy and illegal!
I run a micro-business online where most of my goods are manufactured and sold via ecommerce.
If they do enforce this fascist policy I will simply trade from a PO Box in the US and open a US bank account.

busenbust

I remember reading once about the EU planning to kill MS. Perish the thought .

Mickey247

What a farce.

Why should forward thinking retailers pay the price for businesses which aren't willing to adapt to change.