Intelligence
Analysis on EU regulatory compliance in e-commerce M&A: GPSR, EPR, DSA, and Omnibus Directive.
GP3 Framework
What is Gross Profit 3 (GP3)? The full walk from Net Revenue to EBITDA, GP1, GP2, and GP3, broken into every cost line that makes up each layer. A visual reference and complete glossary.
Read →GP3 Framework
Standard P&Ls hide where e-commerce margin breaks. The Tronvik GP3 Waterfall isolates GP1, GP2, and GP3, and their GM1–GM3 margins, to expose what due diligence usually finds too late.
Read →Sourcing
What makes an e-commerce business a price taker? Concentrated sourcing and no power to pass input costs through. GM1 shows which one a target is, if anyone bothers to separate it out of the blended margin. With the EU's low-value customs exemption gone since July 2026 and a forced-labour prohibition arriving in 2027, the bill for concentrated sourcing is being rewritten mid-deal.
Read →DPP
What is a Digital Product Passport (DPP)? It extends GPSR's manufacturer-attribution logic into supply-chain data most white-label operators never captured. For portfolios built on China OEM sourcing, the gap isn't always fixable with money, and it hits GP1 and fixed costs differently than GPSR did.
Read →GPSR
What is GPSR? The EU General Product Safety Regulation creates hidden COGS liabilities invisible to standard financial due diligence. Here is what to check before opening the data room.
Read →CRD
How long does an EU trader have to deliver? Thirty days by default under the Consumer Rights Directive, unless something else was agreed, and the something else is usually a promise on the product page. That promise lifts conversion the moment it is made and generates cost every time it is missed. The gap between the two is written in timestamps the seller does not control.
Read →CRD
Does EU law require a cancel button? Since 19 June 2026, an electronic withdrawal function is mandatory for online distance contracts. For a target whose recurring revenue is priced on a multiple, the question is what the churn rate looks like once leaving is as easy as joining.
Read →DSA
What is DSA trader traceability? Article 30 of the Digital Services Act requires online marketplaces to verify a trader's identity and compliance self-certification before letting it sell, and to suspend traders whose information does not hold up. For a target with heavy marketplace revenue, the channel that carries the sales is now also the regulator with the fastest trigger.
Read →EPR
What is EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility)? It isn't a single compliance line item. It's a separate national registration and fee obligation for every EU market a target sells into, which means the more impressive a target's cross-border growth story, the larger its probable EPR gap is likely to be.
Read →CRD
When return shipping costs more than the item is worth, customers don't return it: they throw it away or keep it. The resulting low return rate reads as product quality in a QoE model. Often it's a fee schedule built around the Consumer Rights Directive's return-cost rules, and the margin it protects doesn't survive normalisation post-close.
Read →UCPD
A missing phone number and a chatbot that never routes to a human don't just suppress support cost-per-order. EU case law requires a trader's contact channels to deliver quick, effective communication, and the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive treats disproportionate barriers to exercising a contract right as an aggressive practice. What reads as GP2 efficiency in a QoE model may be a liability the acquirer inherits.
Read →Green Claims
Is greenwashing illegal in the EU? From 27 September 2026 it is, categorically: the EmpCo Directive bans generic green claims, uncertified sustainability labels, and offset-based carbon neutrality outright. For an acquirer, the question is narrower: how much of the target's price premium rests on claims that are about to come down, and what does the margin look like without them?
Read →GDPR / ePrivacy
What does valid cookie consent require in the EU? Active choice: pre-ticked boxes haven't counted since the Court of Justice said so in 2019, and regulators have since foreclosed the buried reject button too. A target whose retargeting audiences, analytics, and attribution were built on invalid consent is running its marketing on borrowed data, and both regulators and ad platforms now collect on that debt.
Read →Dark Patterns
Are dark patterns illegal in the EU? Some are banned outright, some are assessed case by case, and a dedicated regime is being drafted. For an acquirer, the question is narrower and more urgent: when a target converts well above its category, which engine is producing the orders, and does that engine survive the change of ownership?
Read →UCPD
Are fake reviews illegal in the EU? Yes, categorically: the UCPD blacklist bans submitting or commissioning them, and bans claiming reviews are verified without checking. A manufactured review base inflates conversion once at the checkout and once more in the data room, because customer reviews are the evidence everyone's diligence quietly leans on.
Read →Omnibus
What is the EU 30-day rule for price reductions? Under Article 6a of the Price Indications Directive, any announced discount must be measured against the trader's lowest price of the prior 30 days. A target whose conversion rate is built on inflated reference prices is booking the anchor's work as marketing efficiency, and that GM3 doesn't survive compliant pricing post-close.
Read →GP3 Framework
When a D2C brand also sells through retailers, both sides end up competing for the same branded search, in text ads, and even more so in Shopping. Unless GM3 is measured by channel and search intent, that conflict is invisible, and it is funding the target's own competition.
Read →