New EU Consumer Rights!!

shop-bricks

Hi! This is my first contribution to our forum, but I thought the matter of rather great importance:

Is everyone aware of what we european sellers have to adjust to AS OF TODAY? The discussion at "the other place" has already started...

This link is quite informative: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-11-450_en.htm?locale=en

What I personally find especially interesting:
- The buyer has to know ALL prices BEFORE making an order, including the exact shipping costs and any handling or payment fees...
- If a payment leads to a fee for the seller (as is the case with paypal or stripe), the customer can only by charged the EXACT amount of these costs. So: no more "general Paypal-fee of 5%"?
- there is now a european right of withdrawal for every customer. I only found the text in german so far: can anyone provide an english translation (or rather: not a translation, but the official EU-text)?

Looking forward to read everyones opinions on this one...

Anyway: Happy bricking!
Benedic

Hoddie

There's been an EU-wide right to cancel for many years now, but one of the changes in today's legislation is that it standardises the cooling-off period at 14 days, whereas previously in some countries it was different (UK was 7 days for example).

I posted some info about this last night. It's really quite important and as it stands, all EU sellers on this site are failing to meet the legislation.

From the other thread:

To be honest this is a wider issue with Brick Owl. Most EU stores on here will be failing to meet EU consumer regulations. For instance, payment can be taken at the point of ordering without it forming a contract providing it is acknowledged in the terms and conditions of sale, and subsequent confirmation email, that the order has been received but remains subject to review. If it cannot be proven that a customer has been given the chance to read the terms and regulations - the usual "tick this box to accept" thing - they could argue that they didn't accept them and, instead, an implied contract exists which requires the seller to honour the order.

EU regulations also require that once an order has been accepted, a customer must be notified of that fact and, furthermore, of their cancellation rights. Failure to do this can result in higher costs for the store should a customer exercise their right to cancel.

Technically speaking, a company in one EU country that trades to another EU country also has to meet the requirements of the legislation of that country. The often quoted example is that businesses who trade to customers living in France should ensure that their terms and conditions are available in French, else they can be ruled invalid by the French authorities. A business trading to the UK should ensure that their postal address (and registered address if different) is shown in a prominent place on their website, together with an email address and any relevant registration numbers.

There are 28 different countries in the EU and each will have little things like this that could allow a determined buyer to catch a business out.

Further afield, stores retailing within and to the USA should have a prominent limited liability clause in their terms and conditions, and I'm sure I read something not long ago that said this needs to be in bold capital letters in order to be valid. You could argue that US law has no jurisdiction in the EU, and you'd be right - to a point. It wouldn't stop the customer bringing a case against you in an EU court, and some jurisdictions here are required to give consideration to consumer law in the destination country.

It's a minefield out there! Who in their right mind would want to be a seller!

Basically, Brick Owl as a platform will never be able to cover all bases for every seller, but there are a few things that could be incorporated to help sellers help themselves. A priority must surely be a requirement for a buyer to confirm that they have read and agreed to the store's terms and conditions before being able to submit an order. Whether those terms and conditions are valid and/or exhaustive enough would be a matter for each individual seller.

--- and ---

ps one final thing - the latest EU Directive on Consumer Rights is currently being transposed by all member states. By happy coincidence the new rules apply in the UK as from today (13 June 2014). I don't know what the dates are in the other EU countries.

There are several changes that online retailers need to be made aware of and those with registered businesses should ensure that they have read and understood the current rules. A good outline is here:

http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/templates/asset-relay.cfm?frmAssetFileID=75284
(this is a pdf file you can save and/or print for future reference)

Note that although these rules will generally apply to e-retailers across the EU, the actual specifics may be different in some countries.

pmitch

Hoddie, Thanks (?!?) for the very detailed legal news.

Do you know the general reception (and action?) across the relevant e-commerce spectrum (amazon, ebay, BL, etc)? I would guess that BrickOwl Stores would be roughly comparable to stores on the other sites.

If it is ignored universally (at least by mom and pop shops, or smaller!), I am not very worried. In fact, I'm not sure what if anything I need to worry about as a US seller, although since I am transacting through a UK website...

There are certain aspects that seem to be 'good business', such as the ' tick this box to accept' thing, but some of the others would seem to fall into what many of us do in the resolution process if a problem arises. From what I've seen, many/most BO sellers work very hard to lean toward the customer to assure a positive customer experience.

Maybe its different on the Continent, but here, some of us tend to avoid complexity unless we are pulled through the wringer.

shop-bricks

@Hoddie: Thank you, great and informative post! Sorry, I did not see your earlier thread. Your are absolutely right about certain things that are technically impossible at the moment at brickowl and would be great to have it implement (like the button-solution you are pointing out), but there are certain law points, that should be no problem at all to adhere to even now (like the paypal-fee...)

@noteworthys: I do agree that most shops try hard to offer a positive customer experience. But I am also concerned about equal grounds for all EU-sellers. I do admit to feel sometimes a bit annoyed by fellow sellers who end up at the top of a sellers list for a certain part, because they put their shipping cost at 0.00 €, but only zero until you get to their shop, that is. Trying to show customers honest shipping fees right away, I cannot help feeling to be at a disadvantage...

Hoddie

@noteworthys - unfortunately I don't know whether or not a non-EU seller will need to meet the new regulations when selling to an EU country. I suspect you probably do but on the other hand I can't see any easy way of forcing you to do so. It would take an extremely determined buyer to force your hand, and my opinion is that you're too small fry for the EU to try and take on directly.