2020 TSMA

37 Current Status of the the EU Commission‘s Activities and Timetable*) *) as per September 2018, when this article has been written On May 27, 2019, the EU Commission closed a public consultation phase, which had started on February 4, 2019, where numerous industry and trade federations same as individual companies had used the opportunity to articulate their point of view relating to the VBER reform, which also includ- ed a position paper of the European Sporting Goods Federation FESI with my active contribution (for further details pl. visit https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/initiatives/ares-2018-5068981/public-consultation_ en#consultation-outcome According to the Commission’s public statements, the whole evaluation process has the objective to check whether VBER 2010 is still effective, efficient, relative and in line with other EU legislation and whether it adds value or not. It had been announced by the Commission that prior to summer of this year an evaluation support study would be published, but until to date (midst of September 2019) it did not yet happen to my best knowledge. The Commission further plans to organize a dedicated stakeholder workshop for the fall of 2019 followed by the publication of a staff working document in the second quarter of the year 2020. The remaining time of approximately twenty-four months until the lapse of the current VBER 2010 in May 2022 will then be used for the so-called impact assessment phase. Lobbying Efforts of various stakeholders and Interest Groups Given the very significant economic impact of this legislative review and reform, it is not surpris- ing that hundreds of lobbyists are swarming out in Brussels with the attempt to influence the re- form. Big online players such as Amazon, Google and others and their federations are continuously approaching EU Commission representatives, members of the European Parliament and others, same as multiple industry representatives and industry federations raise their voice. It certainly is anything else but surprising that the lobbyists of the online trade put massive financial and other efforts into the influencing of this legislative evaluation process in Brussels to fight for an abolition