The impression is that the authorities are more on top of this now. EU has now come up with guidelines about how these regulation can be applied. These guidelines are just guiding. Please get in touch if you want to read these guidelines.
Regulations Overall
- You can’t inform the customer too much.
- The information about regulations and prerequisites for the purchase must take place before the order is completed.
- The information about order conditions can’t be hidden in a PDF for example with the conditions.
- If you miss to inform the customer, the customer is right.
- The information at the site is to be consider a legal commitment.
- The return form must be available at the site, even if it is printed in the parcel.
- Loss in value for a return has been more concrete. The customer has the right to changes one’s mind, but the e-commerce seller has the right to deduct the loss in value in some cases.
The sanctions are stricter if you don’t follow the law as an e-commerce seller, up to 5 % of the company’s yearly turnover, or 100 MEUR.
A new personal information law is coming up for EU, replacing the law today. It should be done by 2017. The time until then is needed to make some adjustments.
An e-commerce seller must inform about incidents, for example intrusions or loss of customer data with no delay. Both to authorities and customers. An e-commerce seller must also be certain that customer data isn’t saved unnecessary. It can only be kept as long as it is needed for the financial transaction. They can later be kept for archive, but not in an operational database. If you want to save customer data, a member program is a legal alternative if the rules of the program are right.
Consumer Credits
Konsumentverket in Sweden, are looking into consumer credits. Especially companies that don’t perform enough credit assessments and companies who hasn’t the primary business to provide credit. The sanction is prohibition (without time frame), and extensive fines. If a company wants to offer credit by themselves, there are new strict rules on how to perform the credit assessment.
What e-commerce Sellers can Review
Given the new regulations, it can be a good idea for e-commerce sellers to update the order or member conditions, and make sure to update the information at the web site. Some adjustments can be necessary for the ordering process, make sure to check if it affects you. It can also be needed to look into the routines and educate the customer service members in returns and refunds.