Jagger aims to satisfy e-shoppers

The Rolling Stones star generates huge international sales

You can't always get what you want - that was the EU's message to rock star Sir Mick Jagger at a forum aimed at making internet shopping easier.

The veteran rocker was among a group of business leaders invited to help find ways to simplify the complex e-shopping rules that EU citizens face.

Online consumers often feel they are not getting a fair deal, EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said.

The Brussels meeting on Wednesday was "the start of a discussion", she said.

The business panel also included: Apple boss Steve Jobs, the head of EMI Roger Faxon, Alcatel-Lucent boss Ben Verwaayen and the bosses of Fiat and eBay - John Elkann and John Donahoe.

"Consumers often find that the products they are looking for are not available to them," Ms Kroes told the forum.

"When it comes to physical products, there seems to be room to do more to enforce the [EU] competition rules more rigorously to help consumers.

"For digitally-delivered products, such as music, the position seems more complicated. But no easier to explain to the consumer.

"Why is it possible to buy a CD from an online retailer and have it shipped to anywhere in Europe, but it is not possible to buy the same music, by the same artist, as an electronic download with similar ease? Why do pan-European services find it so difficult to get a pan-European licence?"

Ms Kroes said the round table participants had highlighted the complexity of rights and licensing agreements for digitally-delivered products. "But that is no excuse for inaction," she added.

The business leaders will help prepare a short report for the European Commission and will submit their own comments on the issues by 15 October 2008, the competition commissioner said.

The commission will then draw up proposals to improve online retailing.