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Harmonized Parcel Label

Ecommerce Europe chairs CEN Working Group to create standard bringing closed networks and open specifications together on one parcel label for the first time

"This is a major step forward to really innovating cross-border parcel delivery services in Europe. One of the main difficulties in parcel delivery was closed standards which create proprietary networks, resulting in unfavorable market conditions for online merchants.

The vote on the Technical Specification achieved an approval rate of 93.75% of all CEN members, representing 83.6% of Europe’s population.

Ecommerce Europe is honored to have been in the driving seat in creating solid, open standards that will transform the old analogue parcel into a digital and interconnected one”, declared Mr Walter Trezek, Co-chair of the e-Logistics Working Group of Ecommerce Europe, who chaired the work on the standardized label over the past months.

Fig. 1: CEN/TS17073 Postal Services - Interfaces for cross border postal parcels

By facilitating the work under a mandate of the European Commission to specify harmonized Interfaces for cross-border parcels in Europe, Ecommerce Europe has achieved consensus amongst all players in parcel delivery.

It is the first time that closed networks and open specifications can be supported on one parcel label.

For Ecommerce Europe, the approval of CEN members of the Technical Specification is a clear statement that the strategy of the European e-commerce association to actively engage in shaping necessary market fundamentals through side regulation was right.

Ecommerce Europe will engage itself in further activities to actively overcome hurdles linked to cross-border e-Logistics in the very near future.

Ecommerce Europe is currently revising its Manifesto for a better parcel delivery market in Europe, first published in September 2016, in order to take into account both the recent vote on the harmonized parcel label and the developments on the Proposal for a Regulation on cross-border parcel delivery services.

Ecommerce Europe press release: April 2017