El blog de Maria

More than one hundred fifty million European Union citizens making purchases over the Internet.

Thirty million of them are cross border.

It seems it is a market that generated 25,000 million euros a year. 

Europe ha recently issued a directive which will come into force by the end of the current year and that Member States will have to implement at their legal orders within two years. 

More important aspects:

1. Right of withdrawal up to 14 days.

The main novelty of this Directive is the introduction of a period of 14 days to return any product purchased at a distance. The 14 days begin when the consumer receives the goods. The consumer may return the product without having to state the reasons for its decision and without being penalized. The Directive also includes a further guarantee: in cases where the seller does not inform the customer about this right of withdrawal, the period is extended to a year.

2. Right to reimbursement

The merchant must return money to consumers of the product within 14 days of withdrawal, including delivery charges. To further facilitate this withdrawal, the Directive includes a model form that the consumer may use (but shall not be obliged to).  

3. Increased clarity on prices

From now on, sellers must inform clearly the total cost of the product so that the buyer will not pay those expenses which have not been reported. In addition, the commission which is applied by using a particular payment method, for example, by the use of cards, cannot exceed the cost that the seller have for using this.

4. Prohibition of "boxes marked"

When shopping online, some services are often added through a series of boxes which are usually marked in advance. From now on these boxes are prohibited trying to avoid the consumer is something that has not contracted.

"Grazalema", Cádiz, Spain, by elholgazan, at flickr.com