Legal Changes in E-commerce in 2024: Summary. Enter the Next Year with a Clean Slate

The year 2024 brought some major legal changes in the e-commerce law. The EU Digital Service Act, ICS2 Release 3 and the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 have all made an impact on the online landscape, with many of these changes still rolling out in 2025. Let’s take a look at a summary of the legal changes in e-commerce in 2024 once again and discuss them in more detail.

Summary of the Most Important Legal Changes in E-Commerce in 2024

Without any further ado, let’s look at the changes that impact international parcel delivery and e-commerce sales in the EU, UK and Switzerland.

Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024

First, let's look at our local legislation. Having received Royal Assent, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCC Act) has begun to be rolled out in the final quarter of 2024. What did this legislation change, and what will it change in the upcoming months?

• Unit pricing—along with the act, online retailers are obliged to display unit prices for all products available in their stores.

• Hidden fees—the act affects hidden fees to prevent situations where customers are lured with low prices and later struck with extra costs, for instance, high delivery fees.

• Fake reviews—fake reviews were fully banned, whether it was creating them or commissioning them. It’s also illegal to offer or advertise the creation or commission of fake reviews, and e-commerce owners are obliged to put effort into ensuring the reviews are not fake or deceptive when providing access to them.

• Subscription models—now, you need to send reminders every time a subscription is about to renew while also allowing “cooling off” periods.

The EU Digital Services Act

Secondly, 2024 brought changes to the e-commerce legal landscape in the European Union in the form of the EU Digital Services Act (DSA). This specific regulation affected several elements of online stores that reach EU consumers. What were the changes?

• Content moderation—similarly to the DMCC Act, the DSA imposed an obligation on online platforms to ensure that no illegal content nor misinformation is published on them. Moreover, such platforms need to conduct risk assessments of campaigns focused on misinformation and prepare procedures to prevent the spread of such information.

• Transparency—secondly, the DSA requires online platforms to provide information about the way their algorithms and ads work. They also require you to create ads in such a way that it is straightforward that they were created for advertising purposes. Finally, online platforms operating in the EU are now banned from personalizing content for minors.

• Accountability—finally, the DSA imposes accountability for meeting the above provisions on the online platforms, even if the product listings are posted by third-party providers.

ICS 2 Release 3

We must mention the ICS2 Release 3 in our summary of the major e-commerce legal changes in 2024—it’s yet another crucial document. This legal change affected maritime and inland carriers in 2024 and is about to impact maritime and inland waterway filers and road and rail carriers in 2025. What does this regulation change?

• The economic operators affected need to ensure that the HS code input into the ENS system is correct.

• When importing your goods to the UK, you will be required to provide the EORI numbers of the parties involved.

• You will also be required to provide information about the parties involved in commercial transactions (and information about the owner of goods if the transaction is non-commercial but the goods end up within the EU borders).

New Tax Regulations for Platforms Operating in Switzerland

Do you ship your goods to Switzerland? In this case, you’ll need to look into your structure due to the new VAT regulations in Switzerland.

Due to this change, you no longer need to have a tax presence in Switzerland if you use third-party platforms, such as online marketplaces—the tax obligation lies on them. On the other hand, if you own such a platform, you must register as a taxpayer in Switzerland.

What if you sell your products through your own platform? There are not many changes, though the approved VAT tax rate might be increased in 2026 from 8.1% to 8.8%.

What Shall the Year 2025 Bring?

Since many of the legal changes from 2024 haven’t been fully rolled out yet, their implementation will mostly mark this year. However, there are some additional changes that we might expect.

Firstly, there are the US tariff rules. Since the $800 duty-free de minimis rule has been highly abused, the US government put it under scrutiny, so we should expect changes that will impact shipments to the US, especially since Trump overtakes the steering wheel after Biden.

Returning to the EU, the European Accessibility Act will impact everybody in the supply chain, from store owners to producers and packaging manufacturers. While many businesses have already taken steps to ensure compliance, if yours haven’t, it’s time to act as the clock is ticking, with this document becoming official legislation by June 2025.

The Takeaway

This is our summary of the most important changes to e-commerce legislation that occurred in 2025. Follow our blog to stay up-to-date about new legislation and the world of cross-border logistics. Need help delivering your products to the EU, North America or Australia? Contact us at Landmark Global!