Shopify
Following a dialogue with the Network of Consumer Authorities, under the lead of Belgium’s Directorate General for Economic Inspection and the coordination of the Commission, Shopify agreed to create a fast and effective notice and action procedure to be used by Consumer Authorities and to change its templates in order to push traders into being more transparent towards consumers, a innovative approach to consumer protection otherwise referred to as ‘compliance by design’.
Shopify, headquartered in Canada, is one of the leading companies enabling traders to create their own web stores on its platform, offering them also webhosting, drop-shipping and other services. Consumer Authorities received numerous complaints through the European Consumer Centres about web stores hosted by Shopify that engaged in illegal practices such as fake offers, fake scarcity claims, counterfeit goods, no or late delivery or no provision of contact details. Especially during the Covid-19 pandemic there was a spike of complaints as consumers and legitimate traders moved online quickly and scammers quickly took advantage of the situation. Many of the web stores using Shopify also conduct business through the so-called drop-shipping business model without duly informing consumers about expected delivery times or additional customs charges.
Overview of Shopify’s main commitments:
- Fast and effective notice and action procedures dedicated to CPC authorities , against traders that engage in unfair commercial practices through web stores hosted by Shopify.
- More clear and detailed legal guidance on EU consumer law, addressed to traders when setting up their web stores through Shopify
- Fields have been added for company information and contact details in Shopify’s templates to create web stores and in the Terms and Conditions, Privacy Policy, and Refund Policy Generators.
- Provision of company details for EU/EEA traders when requested by CPC Authorities.
Moreover, national consumer authorities have also agreed to reinforce their cooperation with the Canadian Competition Bureau against Shopify traders that are not based in the EU/EEA.
Amazon Prime
Following a dialogue with the European Commission and national consumer protection authorities, Amazon committed to bringing its cancellation practices in line with EU consumer rules. The platform will enable consumers from the EU and EEA to unsubscribe from Amazon Prime with just two clicks, using a prominent and clear “cancel button”. This action was launched by the Commission in cooperation with national consumer authorities following a complaint by the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC), the Norwegian Consumer Council and the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue.
As a first measure resulting from this dialogue, Amazon implemented the first changes to its Prime web interface in 2021, labelling the cancel button more clearly and shortening the explanatory text. From now, this text will now be further reduced so that consumers do not get distracted by warnings and deterred from cancelling, and consumers will be able to unsubscribe in two simple steps.
Amazon has committed to implementing these changes on all its EU websites and for all devices (desktop, mobile and tablet) as of 1 July 2022.
The closure of this EU/EEA-wide action does not prevent national authorities to take further action.
Parship
Following a dialogue with the CPC authorities, coordinated by the Belgian DG for Economic Inspection, the dating website Parship has improved the information displayed on its website regarding the exercise of the right of withdrawal and the automatic renewal of the contract. With the changes, consumers will be better informed what they have to pay if they subscribe to Parship services.
AliExpress and Wish
The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM), working closely with the Commission and the CPC Network, has obtained EU-wide commitments from international marketplaces AliExpress and Wish to ensure that their practices as well as those of its traders respect EU consumer law:
- Right of withdrawal – Under EU law, consumers have the right to cancel a distance sales contract within 14 days after having received the good and without providing a reason;
- Legal guarantee – In the EU, sellers are liable to consumers for any lack of conformity of a good with the contract that becomes apparent during a period of 2 years from delivery;
- Extra costs – Under EU law, prices must include all fees payable by consumers, including VAT; where extra costs may arise, for example customs duties or other fees at the border, and they cannot be estimated precisely in advance, their existence must be prominently indicated;
- Seller’s identity - Sellers must provide information on their identity and geographical address;
- Ranking – Where sellers pay to the online platform to appear higher in the search results, this must be prominently communicated to consumers;
In 2021, AliExpress committed to better inform consumers that they can take legal action or complain against a trader (i.e. in their country of habitual residence and not before a court or dispute resolution body in Hong Kong, for example) and clarified this also in their terms of service.
Following continued exchanges with ACM and the Commission in 2022, AliExpress further clarified its general terms and conditions for European consumers and improved their accessibility. In addition, AliExpress committed to improve the prominence and transparency of information on additional fees linked to the import of goods.
Wish also committed to increase price transparency in 2022, in particular by implementing a new interface to prevent unauthentic and misleading discounts advertised by their business partners on the Wish marketplace. In addition, Wish stopped personalised pricing techniques in the EU, as of 1 June 2022, as it was not clear for consumers how they function and how they determine the price based on consumers’ personal data.
The Commission and CPC authorities will now assess the correct and full implementation of these commitments and continue to monitor, whether prices, including discounts and time-limited offers, are authentic and presented to consumers in a transparent manner.
Further information on customs duties and VAT can be found here: Buying goods online coming from a non-European Union country
In-app purchases
The CPC Network asked the Internet platform providers Apple and Google as well as the association of online game developers, ISFE, to propose to clearly identify in-app purchases in online games and address issues relating to misleading advertising of games as "free"; direct exhortation to children to purchase when this is banned; how parents can better control unintended purchases made in-games.