The 2023 edition of the WCO E-Commerce Package is now online

Over the past year, WCO Members and stakeholders carried out a comprehensive review of the e-commerce business models and the roles and responsibilities of e-commerce stakeholders as described in the Technical Specifications to the Framework of Standards on Cross-Border E-Commerce (E-Commerce FoS). The review involved the discussion of 38 formal proposals submitted by Members, partner international organizations and private-sector stakeholders, as well as the drafting and discussion of proposed amendments. The purpose of the amendments is to reflect the dynamically evolving nature of e-commerce and provide more clarity on the roles and responsibilities of the various e-commerce stakeholders. Given its specific implications for Customs, a description of the e-commerce fulfilment process has been added to the part of the Technical Specifications describing e-commerce business models.

The outcome of the review work was approved by the Council on 23 June 2023 and the updated version of the Technical Specifications to the E-Commerce FoS is now available on the WCO web-site as part of the E-Commerce Package.

This marks the completion of the last annual review under the initial mechanism for update and maintenance of the E-Commerce Package as endorsed by the Permanent Technical Committee (PTC) in June 2020. Following a revision of the update/maintenance mechanism endorsed by the PTC in October 2022 and confirmed by the Council this month, the review mechanism will no longer include annual reviews of specific parts of the E-Commerce Package, but will comprise only 4-year periodic reviews of the entire Package.

In addition to the review work, in financial year 2022-2023 Members also contributed to the development of the 4th edition of the Compendium of Case Studies on E-Commerce. Eight existing case studies were updated and three new case studies were added to the Compendium, bringing the total number of case studies to 37.

The Compendium of Case Studies on E-Commerce supports the WCO membership with practical examples of how individual Members address priority issues such as the exchange of advance electronic data, facilitation, safety, security and revenue collection (including de minimis levels). The information included in the Compendium can supplement the annexes to the Technical Specifications dealing with Reference Datasets for Cross-Border E-Commerce and Revenue Collection Approaches.

The 4th edition of the Compendium of Case Studies on E-Commerce was approved by the Council on 23 June 2023 and has also been made available on the WCO web-site as part of the E-Commerce Package.

For more information please visit