Miners of peer-to-peer decentralized digital currencies, like Bitcoin and Litecoin, will be subjected to a 23% value-added tax (VAT) in Poland, should they plan to continue selling the virtual currencies.

"The announcement came after a Bitcoin miner had submitted a request to seek further clarification of the country’s implementation of taxes on the sale of mined Bitcoins."

"Polish authorities, in an official document which comes as a reply to the request, consider Bitcoin mining a service and the sale of these mined Bitcoins is similar to asking a fee for the service."

"The argument of the authorities is contrary to that of the particular Bitcoin miner who states that Bitcoin mining and its respective sale is not applicable to taxes because it is not a commodity."

Source Thepaypers.com

Source Appseconnect.com

IBM has allegedly patented a system which analyses users’ click patterns to detect fraud online.

"The company has declared that by using this system will be easier to detect thefts by identifying the areas of a page that users click on and whether they navigate with a mouse or keyboard or by analyzing the way they swipe through screens on a smartphone or tablet. The technology could identify sudden changes in online behaviour, which would then trigger a secondary authentication measure, such as a security question. It would work on a mobile device or computer."

More info here.

Racounter.net published an inforgraphic on subject of e-commerce payment preferences.

Infograpfic available here. 

DHL, a global shipping company, aims at developing the current logistics infrastructure to boost EU’s ecommerce business beyond the region`s country borders.

"According to Andrej Busch, CEO DHL Parcel Europe:

• online retailers just needed to be able to get a product or service to an online buyer and the only requirement was enough infrastructure to enable shipping
• the second step was scalable infrastructure
• the shipping cost of an item had to be kept at a low rate in as much as to be still profitable to send it to a shopper, especially for the sale of consumer electronics online
• scalable infrastructure requires logistic density and delivery volume, which are features of more mature logistics networks
• online fashion required a convenient return policy infrastructure solution"

"Logistics will head towards the solutions for FMCG and grocery retailers who ship perishable, chilled and cheap items. DHL already provides grocery e-retailers with solutions such as the multi-box, which is a recyclable box that keeps items chilled until a customer can come home. The box can then be left out for a DHL courier to retrieve. DHL’s agenda for the future is to further export its logistics solutions to other European countries. The German logistics company is pooling existing European delivery networks (Benelux, Poland and Czech Republic) not just to introduce the infrastructure necessary for ecommerce, but as Andrej Busch emphasized, to seize on the chance to bring the idea of a united European Union market to life."

"While there are no customs or tangible borders between EU member states, individual European countries still behave like islands. Cross-border shipping is still expensive and people tend to buy domestically."

More info here.