Online auction giants eBay, have lobbied European authorities to forgo the insistence that internet retailers must have a physical shop to accompany their ecommerce sites.

The European Commission have put together a draft law which proposes that wholsesalers are within their rights to demand that distributors must possess brick and mortar shop or showroom.

This would allow consumers to experience the product first hand. The law could therefore exclude internet-only-shops from a suppliers distribution network.

At present, the EU guidelines relieve retailers who trade exclusively online of certain European competition rules.

eBay argue that replacing these regulations would be harmful to the expansion of e-commerce in Europe, and herald the possibility of higher pricing, while also damaging the smallest retailers.