Retailers must train staff in consumer rights law

A leading consumer rights lawyer wants it to be compulsory for retailers to train their staff in retail law.

As Computeractive’s Fair & Square campaign begins to gather momentum, Simon Halberstam, partner in lawfirm Sprecher Grier Halberstam LLP, said something radical was needed. He said: “Something does need to be done to get online retailers to comply with laws such as the Distance Selling Regulations (DSR) and Sale of Goods Act.

“I think the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has produced clear guidelines, especially regarding the DSR for retailers, but the problem is most businesses do not bother to read them.” Mr Halberstam said sometimes retailers just needed to be clearer in the information they give out.

He quoted as an example of this an email we received from Sainsbury’s during our mystery shopper exercise, in which we asked 30 leading retailers about their returns policy.

"It certainly looks as if Sainsbury’s is muddled up about the consumer rights when shopping online. There seem to be mistakes on the website terms and conditions and it seems odd that the terms regarding returns do not make a sufficiently clear distinction between the return of faulty goods and the cancellation rights under the DSR,” he said.

“Moreover, when the terms address the return of goods for reasons other than defects, the company does seem to be imposing conditions about cancellation rights that are inconsistent with the DSR. It can’t demand people return goods, faulty or not, within seven days.

“Where it says that it won’t refund the original £19.99 delivery charge, this is a breach of the DSR if the cancellation is made under this law. Also it is not sufficiently clear to me how it handles faulty goods after seven days.”

A Sainsbury’s representative said the company would consider our questions and send a response in due course, and added that it aims to comply with all statutory consumer protection laws.

Mr Halberstam said the Government should take action. “I believe that there should be some sort of regulatory regime – headed by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and the OFT – to make sure retailers comply with consumer rights. Education is vital and one way of handling this would be for some sort of compulsory continuing professional development for all retailers’ staff so they can comply with consumer law,” he said.