European Commission: misleading merchant sites

55 % of sites selling electronic goods do not respect EU good conduct rules: this is the inglorious verdict of a European Commission study that appears this week. Before action is taken against the offenders, the Commission is reminding those in the sector of what constitutes a fair vendor site.

The Commission in co-operation with national governments studied a total of 369 websites in the 26 EU countries as well as Iceland and Norway (signatories of the Schengen treaty but not members of the EU). The accent was placed on sites selling consumer electronic goods (digital cameras, mobile phones, media players etc) that make up over a third of sites for which complaints are made concerning online purchases.

The study didn’t look in detail at sales conditions, nor at other doubtful aspects such as preselection of optional products. It rather confined itself to three points considered as fundamental:

• visibility of contact details of the company managing the site;
• information on offers (product specs, clear details on delivery costs, systematic use of full price – ie including VAT);
• information on purchasers rights (in particular the right to return a product within 7 days).

Results: 55% of sites showed irregularities or were morally problematic (for example, some mention free delivery but without detailing that this is only for deliveries in their own country: not illegal but misleading when you also sell abroad).

Two thirds of these illegal sites “forget” to inform their clients or don’t mention such points as intellectual rights or the right to a cash rather than credit refund for example, or they quote a year long guarantee when the EU legal minimum is two years.

45% quite simply lie about the total price, most often with regard to extra consts (delivery costs in particular), and it is impossible to source the contact details fo a third of those sites at fault.

Examples of practices denounced by the Commission: information is vague and the guarantee less than the legal minimum.

While waiting for action to be taken (the press release says that coercive measures in respect of illegal sites will be taken between now and the beginning of 2010), we remind you that it is never a waste of time to look around for information on a merchant before buying.

Above and beyond these statistics, showing such a high but unsurpising number of irregular sites, the European Commission presented two merchant sites created by its own departments. On an irregular site, pop-up boxes draw your attention to points that should make you wary: unclear or missing information on the product, lack of contact details and so on. On the example of a good site, however, you can see details such as links to delivery costs and details on returns.

European Commission press release