News & positions

Brands call for a fair and sustainable digital market place

The debate on the digital economy and innovation that will be held at the next European Council (26-27 October) is an important step towards ensuring the completion of the Digital Single Market. For the branded goods industry that AIM represents this is an opportunity to take stock of the progress towards a well-functioning digital market place and address remaining obstacles hampering on-line business such as cross-border e-commerce.

In a “Memorandum on Consumer Brands for a Sustainable Digital Market Place” published today, AIM calls for clearer responsibilities along the e-commerce channel including all its actors: manufacturers, resellers/retailers, online service providers, payment providers, distributors and social media and for a number of other barriers to cross-border e-commerce to be addressed by European policy makers. At the same time the Memorandum presents a set of principles for consumer brands when doing business digitally. These are the branded goods sector’s contribution to good practices in the digital market place. The principles cover topics such as business responsibility, safety, privacy and consumer access to redress.