Thomas Eggar offers online retailers tips on how to comply with law after the trading watchdog writes to e-retailers
Thomas Eggar offers online retailers tips on how to comply with law after the trading watchdog writes to e-retailers
A law firm has issued its top ten tips for achieving consumer protection regulatory compliance, following news last week that the Office of Fair Trading has warned some e-retailers about their websites.
As many as half of UK e-commerce sites could be breaking consumer laws, according to a report compiled by BDRC Continental. The OFT said a check of 156 online retailers popular in the UK revealed that 62 of them were not fully complying with consumer protection law.
Ensuring ease of returning online
It said 33% of the sites “appeared to impose unreasonable restrictions on customers' rights to a refund”. And it said that requiring customers to return goods in their original condition or original packaging “can infringe on consumers' rights to reasonably inspect/assess the product”.
The research found that, of the 60% per cent of sites that told buyers that there would be compulsory charges such as delivery as well as the advertised price, 24% of these then added extra charges such as card and booking charges as well.
A further 60% provided a web contact form rather than an email contact address, as required by e-commerce regulations.
However, the OFT also stated: “99% of sites provided details on when the goods would be delivered or the service would start and 95% provided a full geographical address when payment was required in advance.”
The OFT has written to all of those concerned to say that if they do not bring their websites into line with the law they could be taken to court and face fines. And it is directing merchants to its online ‘Distance Selling Hub’ resource.
Review e-commerce compliance
Thomas Eggar observed that many businesses have simply uploaded offline terms and conditions to their websites. “But that often this is not good enough,” said Kim Walker, a partner on the retail and technology teams at Thomas Eggar.
Walker urged retailers take the time to review their online terms and conditions to ensure that their websites are compliant and up to date with the latest consumer protection law, distance selling regulations and cookies policy in order to avoid potential problems and make sure that their interests are properly represented.
She also offered her top ten tips for retailers on how to comply with this legislation:
- Provide an email address rather than simply a ‘web contact form’ so that customers can contact you directly.
- Give your full geographical address, not just a PO Box number.
- Make available a description of the main characteristics of the goods and/or services.
- Specify the methods by which a customer can make payment.
- Show the final price of goods and/or services upfront, including all taxes.
- Make the delivery cost and arrangement information easy to access.
- Inform the customer about their right to cancel any order placed at a distance.
- Explain the return process. You cannot insist that the customer returns the goods in their original packaging as this could be in breach of their right to inspect the goods.
- Detail the refund arrangements.
- Have a policy on your use of cookies, or insert information in your website terms and conditions.
