Israel: Gov’t urges opening online retail market, breaking monopolies

To boost online shopping, the Israeli government is now looking at ways to break current import monopolies and possible open the nation’s online retail market to major sites like Amazon and eBay.

Government officials, including Economy Minsiter Naftali Bennett and a Finance Ministry who wished to remain anonymous, told media stories of inflated prices for Israeli consumers when compared to purchasing the same products outside of the country. To tackle such price hikes, officials are now exploring ways to break the import monopolies that hold exclusive rights to import and sell certain products online.

Bennett and Finance Ministry Yair Lapid have now set up a committee to review the case; one member of the committee said that such import monopolies “specialized in creating regulatory import barriers to prevent competition from retail giants like Amazon and eBay.

Now, the committee is tasked with identifying what those barriers are and removing them to open the online market to competition. The panel is set to file its findings within six month, say reports.

Just five percent of commerce occurs online, according to the committee. That’s compared with 15 to 20 percent in other nations.

Full Content: Haaretz

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