E-COMMERCE
Consumer affairs boss warns e-tailers
29-05-2003
by Andrew McLindon
The Director of Consumer Affairs has warned e-tailers that they could face prosecution for failure to comply with consumer legislation.
Carmel Foley told ElectricNews.Net that she would not rule out prosecuting Web sites that had not complied with legislation and regulations in areas such as direct selling and the cooling-off period for purchases, which gives consumers seven days after receipt of a good to decide whether or not they want to keep it.
Foley was speaking on Thursday at the launch of a report that showed the vast majority of 15 Irish e-tailers studied did not comply with the "cornerstone" of the EU Distance Selling Directive; the right to withdraw from a contract after seven days.
The report on European e-tailing by the European Consumer Centre Network also found that 12 out of the 15 Irish sites did not provide information on this right to withdraw, while none of them complied with national legislation relating to informing consumers of the period for which an offer/price remains valid.
In addition, only a third provided information on warranties, which is required under Distance Selling legislation. The sites also did not fare well in relation to displaying their terms and conditions. In the majority of cases the consumer had to search for the terms and conditions. Approximately half of the Web sites did not show their terms and conditions before a purchase could be made.
"I am not at all happy about these results," remarked Foley. "My office will be following this matter up with the Web sites that appear to have failed to comply with national and EU regulations." She added that such on-line retailers will be given an opportunity to comply with legislation, but prosecutions may follow if there are "flagrant breaches."
The failure of several sites to inform consumers correctly and to protect their rights was also sharply criticised by Tina Leonard, manager of the European Consumer Centre in Dublin. "The results paint a sorry picture and could damage growing consumer confidence in e-commerce," remarked Leonard.
Irene Gahan, chief executive of the Irish Internet Association (IIA), said she was "disappointed" with the results. She added that the IIA would be calling for its members to strictly adhere to the Distance Selling Directive.
Overall, the pan-EU report discovered that one in three goods bought from European on-line stores is not delivered. Thirteen European Consumer Centres made 114 orders for goods such as t-shirts, ink cartridges, CDs, and watches from Webtraders in the EU. Of these orders, only 75 were delivered.
Nearly a third of sites also failed to adhere to regulations that allow consumers to receive a refund if they decide to withdraw from an on-line contract. The testers returned 57 of the goods received and in 18 cases did not receive any refund.
The report concluded that cross-border e-commerce in the EU is "a good shopping alternative unless something goes wrong, which it frequently does".
Among the Irish e-tailers studied in terms of purchasing information provided were Buy4Now.ie/arnotts, HouseofIreland.com, Clerys.ie, Killarneybookshop.is, and Lantz.ie.
Goods were bought from a "handful" of Irish sites (but not from those above), but the report's compliers decided not to disclose the results relating to these sites as they felt they were not indicative of the research as a whole.
The report's results were correct at the end of 2002 when the survey was completed.
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