The Limits and Possibilities of the Development of E-commerce in the EU

This study addresses the main barriers to cross-border e-commerce. The European Union is particularly interested in stimulating the development of cross-border e-commerce, which is one of the most important tools of the strategy for achieving the Digital Single Market in Europe. In the analysis, a gravity model was built from the turnover of EU member states in the domestic and foreign markets. This analysis uses the official data from Eurostat and the indicator such as the penetration rate of cross-border e-commerce within the EU and with other EU countries and third countries was also analyzed. The construction of the gravitational model and the panel data with random effects used for it showed that the penetration rate of electronic commerce is largely related to the volume of trade within the EU, which indicates that the higher the level of penetration of ICT, the more developed the cross-border electronic commerce market. Having the same level of digitalization plays a key role in stimulating the development of cross-border e-commerce. But there are a number of other impediments and barriers that slow down the pace of development, one of these factors is an unharmonized regulatory framework. However, to promote cross-border e-commerce in the EU at this stage, measures are being discussed aimed at developing and implementing a unified legislation, new policy instruments and ensure the same level of digitalization within the European Union countries.