New EU laws to affect online selling

The EU Council of Ministers recently approved the Consumers' Rights Directive, which will harmonise online selling laws across Europe. Within the next two years, all EU countries, including the U.K., will have to implement these changes in online trading regulations into their individual laws.

Computing reported that the CRD outlines key principle rights that should be given to consumers, and is designed to make it easier to sell goods and services online across the EU through a common set of rules.

One new regulation is a 14-day cooling-off period, which allows consumers to change their mind about a purchase for up to 14 days after the initial sale. In addition, there will be surcharge limits for credit card payments and telephone hotlines to make sure online retailers are not hit with outrageously large charges from payment vendors. However, not all retailers are convinced the regulations will resolve all issues.

“We’d now like to see an EU-wide dispute resolution service put in place to protect individuals making cross-border purchases, as well as a mechanism to enable collective redress,” said Richard Lloyd, executive director of Which? retailer.

In addition to the CRD, the European Commission recently published proposals for an optional Common European Sales Law, which would enable online retailers to make sales under a single, EU-wide contract law, rather than 27 different laws in each country. Viviane Redding, the EU's justice commissioner, said in a recent statement the optional Common European Sales Law would kick-start the Single Market, which Europe expects to trigger economic growth in the region.