The Economist | The Pampers index https://www.economist.com/node/21791190?frsc=dg%7Ce via @TheEconomist

Price differences across Europe are often really striking

And price convergence has stalled. (Chart from @spignal piece on single market last year https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.economist.com/briefing/2019/09/12/the-economic-policy-at-the-heart-of-europe-is-creaking )

Price divergence is natural, especially if you have, say Germany and Bulgaria in the same bloc. But the single market is still very national, which means big price differences on same products, even online.

It should be easy to arbitrage these big price differences away in a single market, with free movement of goods, services and capital. But it's not.

Borders still matter in Europe. Both in terms of regulation and culture.

Plus delivery prices between European countries are insane. And, funnily enough, suppliers have little incentive to help get cheap stuff into their high-price markets.

It is getting better. EU has banned online geo-blocking (so stopping customers from Germany logging into the .fr site) for example. There is now transparency on delivery pricing (so now you can see how much you are being fleeced).

At start of decade barely anyone - around 8% - shopped cross-border online. Now 28% do. There is more EU could do, especially on lowering delivery costs and stopping suppliers making it difficult for retailers to shop about.

It sounds petty, but the EU has always been about big and small achievements. Peace! And cheap flights! In one package. https://www.economist.com/europe/2020/08/29/the-pampers-index-what-nappy-prices-reveal-about-europe

It can't all be done top-down from Brussels though. Online arbitrage could become an unlikely engine of European integration. But it would be up to citizens. As with nappies, some things must start at the bottom.

Did I write an entire piece just to get a bum pun in The Economist? Who can say.

Norway has insanely cheap nappies