Cross-border e-commerce is continuously growing with rapid speed which poses issues for authorities to monitor and control the large volumes of goods entering the EU via postal and express services. Digital Product Passports (DPP) are seen as a digital tool that can enable the e-commerce monitoring, however what roles DPPs can play is not yet fully understood. In this research, based on real-life piloting with scanned x-ray images of 10 packages with textiles and toys and based on product data, we gained insights and defined further research directions for exploring further the potential of DPPs and AI and scanned images for customs risk management in the context of cross-border e-commerce.

The ever-growing volumes of e-commerce trade from outside the EU directly to consumers is an increasing challenge globally for customs and market surveillance authorities. In 2024, “4.6 billion of such low value consignments [up to EUR 150] were imported in the EU, almost twice the number recorded in 2023 (2.4 billion), and more than tripled since 2022 (1.4 billion)” (COM, 2025a, p.2). This steep increase in volumes makes it very hard for authorities to monitor and control these flows. However, difficulties to efficiently and effectively manage compliance of these flows, is arguably resulting in unsafe or unsustainable products entering the EU market or unfair competition as products that do not comply to stringent EU requirements are able to enter the market. For example, a recent investigation carried out by 27 customs authorities and 108 market surveillance authorities as part of a EU-wide large-scale operation1 where around 20 000 pieces of toys and small electronics were checked, indicate that many of the products checked had issues with following EU product standards. Having in mind the growing volumes of e-commerce flows, there is an urgent need for authorities to get a better grip to address the cross-border e-commerce compliance monitoring challenges.

Legislative changes that concern both customs and market surveillance authorities are under way. Concerning customs, the ambitious EU Customs Reform was approved on 26 March 2026 by EU Member States and the European Parliament (EU, 2026). The three pillars to the Customs Reform are (1) Smart data-driven approach to customs checks, which will include the establishment of an EU Customs Authority and an EU Customs Data Hub, (2) a strong partnership with businesses, and (3) a modern approach to e-commerce. At the same time, new legislative changes under the Product Act will also affect the way of working of the EU market surveillance authorities. Addressing the issue of authorities in monitoring the steep increase of cross-border e-commerce flows needs to be seen in view of these recent developments.

In the meantime, in 2025, the European Commission published a communication on A Comprehensive EU Toolbox for Safe and Sustainable E-commerce (COM, 2025a), where digital tools, including Digital Product Passports are seen as a potential part of the solution. In the European Union, Digital Product Passports (DPP) were initially seen only as an instrument to foster ecodesign and circularity and to improve market surveillance. The latter has acquired new importance also to solve e-commerce compliance challenges and the DPP concept is increasingly also seen as a tool to address wider concerns including administrative burden reduction. The upcoming EU Product Act (Q3 2026) of the is anticipated to further strengthen this role of DPPs. The Digital Product Passports are still under development and while they are considered as an element for the solution to address cross-border e-commerce monitoring challenges, what role they can play in this context needs to be further understood....

Cross-border eCommerce flows from non-EU countries with direct product delivery to consumers in the European Union have been rapidly growing. Whereas monitoring eCommerce flows for aspects such as Value- Added Tax (VAT), and safety and security already is a high priority, the increasing volumes bring new concerns. Such concerns include how to ensure that the products are sustainably produced and how to ensure a level playing field with products that are produced in the EU or imported via other modes of transport that are subject to more thorough checks at the border. These challenges have become new priorities in EU policy documents. Currently, authorities receive limited information related to eCommerce goods (particularly the low-value consignments that are exempted from duties), which hampers their risk assessment. Recently, Digital Product Passports (DPPs) have been introduced in legislation as a tool to inform consumers, recyclers, and market surveillance authorities about the material and manufacturing aspects of products. These DPPs promise to contain rich data that can be used to enhance both the monitoring and the customs risk assessment of cross-border eCommerce flows. To assess the exact potential and added value of DPPs, we analyze international eCommerce flows in the context of the EU-funded project PARSEC. We identify potential areas where DPPs can be relevant for eCommerce monitoring and risk assessment and present follow-up research directions on this topic.

Pre-print paper to be presented at the EGOV2025 – IFIP EGOV-CeDEM-EPART’25, August 31 – September 4, 2025, Krems, Austria and is to appear in the the CEUR-WS Proceedings of Ongoing Research, Practitioners, Posters, Workshops, and Projects of the International Conference EGOV-CeDEM-ePart 2025.

Cross-border eCommerce flows from non-EU countries with direct product delivery to consumers in the European Union have been rapidly growing. Whereas monitoring eCommerce flows for aspects such as Value- Added Tax (VAT), and safety and security already is a high priority, the increasing volumes bring new concerns. Such concerns include how to ensure that the products are sustainably produced and how to ensure a level playing field with products that are produced in the EU or imported via other modes of transport that are subject to more thorough checks at the border. These challenges have become new priorities in EU policy documents. Currently, authorities receive limited information related to eCommerce goods (particularly the low-value consignments that are exempted from duties), which hampers their risk assessment. Recently, Digital Product Passports (DPPs) have been introduced in legislation as a tool to inform consumers, recyclers, and market surveillance authorities about the material and manufacturing aspects of products. These DPPs promise to contain rich data that can be used to enhance both the monitoring and the customs risk assessment of cross-border eCommerce flows. To assess the exact potential and added value of DPPs, we analyze international eCommerce flows in the context of the EU-funded project PARSEC. We identify potential areas where DPPs can be relevant for eCommerce monitoring and risk assessment and present follow-up research directions on this topic.

In this paper we present a high-level framework for business and government requirements analysis of detection technology, taking emerging policy developments related to circular economy monitoring into account. The framework was developed in the context of the PARSEC research project on postal and parcel eCommerce flows.

In this paper we propose a high-level framework for Green Customs which links the policy developments related to circular economy (CE), to customs and related stakeholder groups, customs activities, and customs innovative capabilities. The framework allows customs to better understand these links and identify capability gaps for circular economy monitoring and steer the developments in order to be better prepared for the future.

https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/786748/results
https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/documents/downloadPublic?documentIds=080166e5f1716216&appId=PPGMS

The international trade flow of e-commerce goods have reached unprecedented volumes. Ensuring undisrupted flow of cross-border eCommerce goods has become one of the top priorities for customs administrations around the world. Customs has a role in safeguarding public values such as safety and security, revenue collection, and stimulation of the economy. Customs administrations are now looking into innovative ways to be able to fulfil their duties for controlling the trade flows while at the same time not hindering trade. But in a broader sense, other government agencies also have responsibilities for safeguarding public values such as product and consumer safety or sustainability and are currently confronted with these eCommerce flows. While eCommerce is a phenomenon that is widely studied in business literature, it is largely unexplored both in research and practice how governments can understand and engage with these eCommerce developments. In this study we focus on the issue revenue collection related to cross-border eCommerce goods. Empirically, our paper builds on insights from the PROFILE EU project, which focuses on the use of data analytics for customs. Theoretically we build on research on control mechanisms in eCommerce platforms and digital trade infrastructures. We present an eCommerce platforms evaluation framework for customs. The evaluation framework consists of two distinct perspectives (i.e. a data analytics and a partnership perspective) that customs can explore when defining their engagement strategies with eCommerce platforms. We limited our study to the interactions of customs with eCommerce platforms and the issue of revenue collection. Further research can study the safeguarding of a wider range of public values by a range of government organisations to account for effects of the vast growth in international flows of goods via eCommerce platforms, such as monitoring product safety and sustainability effects.

Collective data analytics capability building offers opportunities for government organizations to develop capabilities that would be difficult to develop on their own. However, research on that topic is scarce and there is still a limited understanding of how collective data analytics capability building processes contribute to the value realization of the individual participating organizations. In this paper, drawing from the governance literature and by analyzing a case study from the customs domain we develop a governance model that allows to analyze collective data analytics capability building processes. Our governance model is a contribution to the literature on the use of data analytics in government, with the specific focus on understanding the collective data analytics capability building processes. For practitioners, the model can be used for identifying scenarios for engaging in collective data analytics initiatives in a multi-level context.