E-commerce industry fears chaos after Brexit

A hard Brexit might lead to a serious disruption of e-commerce across the borders: the industry therefore insists that Europe and the UK reach a deal quickly.

Chaos looms

In the United Kingdom, e-commerce provides a substantially higher turnover than it does in other European countries and the importance of trade across the borders has grown exponentially in the past decade. That growth is now being threatened: a no-deal Brexit could result in some serious bottlenecks in the stream of parcels passing between the UK and the EU, according to branch organisation E-commerce Europe.

The organisation insists that the EU member states and the British government should end the prevailing insecurity quickly and ensure the continued flow of goods and parcels across the borders, even after 29 March and at the end of the possible transition period. A no-deal Brexit holds the threat of chaos and the price will ultimately be paid by small businesses and consumers. The e-commerce industry requests that online trade should be able to keep working under the same conditions as the internal market.

Online players are not the only ones concerned about the consequences of a hard Brexit: yesterday, the British government organised an exercise to gauge the consequences of huge traffic jams that might form at the Dover border checks – a test that turned into a debacle as way too few trucks were there to participate.