🇪🇺💼 E-Commerce Supremacy? 7 Shockwaves as Europe Disrupts Chinese Platforms

A new fight for digital dominance heats up

Just months after officially imposing tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles (EVs), the EU is again going after Chinese exports, albeit without specifically naming China.

On February 5, the EU unveiled a new strategy to overhaul the e-commerce market: a “Comprehensive EU Toolbox for Safe and Sustainable E-commerce.” It has multiple pillars, including “reforming customs” throughout the bloc to ensure that “low-value” imports (anything priced under €150) would be subject to a tax. It also boosts “market surveillance," enabling the EU to raise the heat on any platform or line of goods that poses a “risk” to society. Alongside all this, the EU has proposed a new levy, a tax on imports, that was phrased in a very interesting way: a “non-discriminatory handling fee.”

None of this directly mentions China. However, the stats reveal how China dominates the export of low-value goods. For example, 91% of goods priced under €150 last year came from China—around 4.6 billion parcels. Separately, at least 45% of European online shoppers have purchased a product from a Chinese platform in the past 12 months.