Regulators to probe online shopping

OFT and Trading Standards will check that retailers inform consumers of their rights

Andrea-Marie Vassou, Computeract!ve 26 Nov 2007

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and Local Authority Trading Standards Services (LATSS) have teamed up to make sure that consumers are made aware of their rights when buying online.

The two organisations will carry out a sweep of the UK's top 600 retail websites next month to ensure that they are complying with key requirements of online shopping laws.

Around half of the UK’s LATSS and the OFT will check whether the websites are meeting key requirements of the Distance Selling Regulations. This law provides additional protection for shoppers when buying by post, online or over the telephone.

Under the Distance Selling Regulations 2005 anyone buying goods or services over the internet, by mail order or catalogue, phone or fax, has extra rights. This is because, unlike in a shop, the products cannot be physically viewed before they are purchased.

The act provides consumers with a cooling-off period of seven working days after agreeing to the purchase and requires a clear description of the goods or services.

The retailer must also make its contact details, including a phone number and email address, clear in case of any problems. A consumer must also be given written confirmation of each order, and this must include all the information listed above.

However, those buying personalised goods or items made to a specification, perishable goods (for example flowers or fresh foods) and newspapers, periodicals or magazines are exempt from this. Sealed audio or video recordings or computer software products that have been opened are also exempt from the cooling-off period.

The sweep follows OFT research earlier this year that found that a third of the online traders it surveyed were unaware or only slightly aware of the laws applying to internet shopping, and that two thirds had never sought advice on them.

More than a fifth of sites also did not provide an email address as required by the regulations and just under a fifth did not tell shoppers that they had an unconditional right to cancel without giving a reason, provided they did so within seven working days of receiving their purchase.

In fact, the OFT said that two thirds of the sites appeared to impose conditions that could prevent or at least deter consumers from exercising their cancellation rights. The Local Authorities Coordinators of Regulatory Services said that Trading standards were using the web sweep “to make online shopping safer for everyone”.

Councillor Geoffrey Theobald, chairman of the Local Authorities Coordinators of Regulatory Service, said: “Most websites comply with the law but shopping online can still put consumers at risk.

“Our efforts will focus on the small minority of websites who need help bringing their practices up to scratch.”

James Roper, chief executive of the industry body for global e-retailing, IMRG, agreed: “Although we don’t get any complaints about them failing to do so, some retailers may stretch the terms on their sites and this is not right.

“There is no excuse for retailers not to comply with these laws and it’s good to see that government bodies are getting involved to help consumers, ” he told Computeractive.

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