Breaking News
OpenAI and Perplexity on the Road to an AI Marketplace
Both OpenAI and Perplexity are pushing strongly toward becoming a marketplace with their agentic commerce projects. OpenAI introduced Shopping Research, a product search for ChatGPT that generates personalized buyer’s guides. Merchants can apply for greater visibility through an allow-list process. Perplexity also enables lightweight product data placement via a Merchant Program. What’s still missing for the marketplace transition is checkout however, both companies are already working actively on transactional shopping journeys. More details an Exciting Commerce ( German, Open AI) and LinkedIn (German, Perplexity)
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EU Parliament Supports Age Limit for Social Media
The EU Parliament supports making platforms like TikTok, YouTube, Instagram – and even AI chatbots – accessible only from the age of 16. For adolescents between 13 and 16 years old, parents would still be able to grant permission for use. More on Euronews
Temu Expands E-Commerce Logistics in Europe
Temu has signed letters of intent with the Austrian, Italian, and Belgian postal services and announced a cooperation with the UK’s Royal Mail. The goal is to process up to 80 percent of European sales within Europe in the future. More on Parcel and Postal Technology International and EcommerceNews
OnBuy grows by +30% in Europe
Just two months after its official launch on the European continent, OnBuy now reports a 30 % growth compared with the previous month. The expansion was funded through its own resources, meaning OnBuy is profitable. Read more on LinkedIn
Strong Growth at Debenhams
The brand Debenhams increased its gross merchandise value in financial year 2025 by 34% to £654 million, significantly outperforming the UK’s e-commerce growth of 5.8%. This positions Debenhams as one of the fastest-growing digital marketplaces in the country. See more on ChannelX
Portuguese Online Retail Reaches € 11 Billion in 2025
Portuguese consumers have spent an estimated € 11 billion on online purchases so far in 2025, according to a projection by the Associação de Economia Digital (AED). This represents an increase of around EUR 1 billion compared with the previous year. Read more on Ecommercenews
Dark SIDE NEWS
Fight Against Illegal Goods on Marketplaces
Police and policymakers in Europe are stepping up efforts to tackle marketplace-related crime. In Italy, authorities seized more than 5,000 products at Amazon locations as part of an investigation into a suspected smuggling ring. In France, prosecutors are investigating eBay over allegations of illegal goods sold on the platform. Meanwhile, the EU has requested Shein to provide information about possible illegal listings following the recent sex doll incident. And at same time, the EU is discussing new regulations to increase marketplace accountability – an issue underscored by Roblox CEO David Baszucki in an interview, where he appeared increasingly irritated by persistent questions about child safety failures instead of showing remorse. See more on Fashionnetwork (Amazon), USNews (eBay), Digital Strategy (Shein), Platformer (Roblox) and CMS-Law (regulations)
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