Recently, the European Commission released
the results of a screening (or ‘sweep’) of 481 retail e-shops (press release available
here).
The main finding was that more than 2/3 of the screened online businesses do
not comply with EU consumer rights legislation (particularly the Consumer
Rights Directive). This number means that consumers are not properly informed on
their rights in 2 out of 3 shops.
Article 6 of the Consumer Rights
Directive establishes that in distance contracts consumers should be given a
long list of information, including on the withdrawal right, on the legal
guarantee and on the total price of the product. Furthermore – and most
importantly -, this information must be given in a clear and comprehensible
manner. However, according to the screening, more than 1/4 of the analyzed
websites did not inform consumers about how to withdraw from a contract. This
breaches Article 6(1)(h) of the Consumer Rights Directive. Furthermore, nearly 1/2
of the analyzed websites did not provide such information in a clear manner
(particularly regarding the 14 days’ time limit). This breaches Article 6(1) of
the Consumer Rights Directive. The failure to inform the consumer about the right
to withdrawal is ‘punished’ by the Consumer Rights Directive with an extension
of the period of withdrawal from 14 days to 14 days and 12 months (Article
10(1)).
The sweep also found a frequent breach
of the pre-contractual duty to inform on the total price of the purchase. In
fact, in over 1/5 of the consulted websites the price initially shown did not
include additional charges such as delivery or postal charges. This breaches
Article 6(1)(e) of the Consumer Rights Directive. Other findings show that over
1/3 of the analyzed businesses did not inform consumers about the 2-year legal
guarantee to have a good repaired, replaced or reimbursed in case of a defect at
the moment of delivery. This breaches Article 6(1)(l) of the Consumer Rights
Directive.
The lack of adequate pre-contractual
information is one of the biggest challenges faced by consumers, and one that
the EU legislator has spent quite some time working on. Of course, one of the
main problems of the information paradigm in EU consumer law is its lack of
enforceability. Even though businesses often breach their duty to provide
information in a clear way, it is (ironically) unclear what the legal and
practical consequences for such a breach are. The Commission, however, promises
an ‘in-depth investigation of the above-mentioned irregularities’ at national
level and the subsequent request for traders to correct and improve the
information they provide to consumers.
