Guide and Checklist for UK Web Sites Selling Products/Services on the Internet

[mandy]

...a checklist for businesses within the United Kingdom designing web pages which promote the sale of goods and services to consumers on the Internet.

Existing consumer protection law, including that on the sale of goods and misleading advertising, applies on-line.

Additional pieces of legislation more specific to Internet trading are The Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 and the Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002. Failure to comply with these Regulations can, in certain circumstances, lead to a claim for damages, or the online contract may be invalidated. Where the breach affects the collective interest of consumers, a business may also be subject to an enforcement order by a Trading Standards Service or other regulator. Using the Enterprise Act they can apply to the Courts for an injunction against any business found not complying with the Regulations. If breaches continue to occur, the individuals or company concerned could be held to be in contempt of Court and face an unlimited fine or imprisonment.

full guide: http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/cgi-b...5-1111.txt

Guide covers in detail:
Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000
Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002 (E Commerce Regs)
Website checklist of requirements that must be met

[mandy]

2 related articles for UK ecommerce selling:

Unwanted goods that have been purchased online or via mail order, telephone, fax or sms can be returned under UK ‘distance selling’ legislation. Many consumers know their legal right to return goods and, if you are a business selling goods by these channels, it is important to be aware of your obligations to consumers.

http://www.it-analysis.com/business/cont...p?cid=8269

E-tailers Beware!

Any business selling IT goods and services over the internet, by mail order or by telephone may wish to review its terms and conditions in light of new guidance published by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) last month.

The guidance sets out the type of terms that the OFT regards as potentially open to challenge. These include terms that:

    * require consumers to incur charges (e.g. carriage charges) for rejecting faulty goods;
    * withhold a cash refund and provide only for the issue of a credit note upon rejection of faulty goods;
    * do not allow consumers a reasonable opportunity to inspect the goods for damage; or...

full article: http://www.it-analysis.com/business/cont...p?cid=8271

The full UK guidelines for selling IT products and services (software, computers, etc) is available here (PDF format, 547K download): http://www.oft.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/F0F8E...oft672.pdf