New EU Ecommerce Directives
New EU Ecommerce directives.
Up to now ecommerce stores operating within Europe have had to adhere to the EU distance selling directive. The current changes are to the cooling off period, seller obligations and more protection for the shopper. While the bulk of the changes make little difference to existing stores it shows that the EU is watching carefully selling practices online and this is evident in the trawl they have recently done on Airline websites forcing them to show the end game price for flights as early in the booking process as is possible.
- Confirmation of that information in a durable medium (such as written confirmation)
- Consumer's right to cancel the contract within a minimum of 7 working days without giving any reason and without penalty, except the cost of returning the goods (right of withdrawal);
- Where the consumer has cancelled the contract, the right to a refund within 30 days of cancellation;
- Delivery of the goods or performance of the service within 30 days of the day after the consumer placed his/her order
- Protection from unsolicited selling
- Protection from fraudulent use of payment cards
- Non validity of any waiver of the rights and obligations provided for under the directive, whether instigated by the consumer or the supplier.
- Some types of contracts are excluded from all the provisions of the directive. The exemptions include contracts for financial services and contracts concluded through an auction. Contracts for financial services are covered by the Distance Marketing of Financial Services
