Office of Fair Trading investigation suggests significant number of online retailers may not be complying with consumer protection law.
BBC News reports that the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) performed checks on 156 popular websites and found that 62 may not be fully complying with consumer protection law, suggesting that more than a third of UK online retailers could also be failing to comply.
As part of its investigation, the OFT found “unreasonable restrictions on refunds and compulsory charges being added without prior warning at the online checkout”, and has asked retailers to change their websites according to the consumer law by Christmas.
Other common problems uncovered by the OFT were “retailers wrongly telling their customers that returned goods must be in their original packaging or in their original condition”, breaching the buyer’s “right to inspect or assess a product”; as well as almost two-thirds of retailers failing to provide an email address, which is a breach of the E-Commerce regulations.
Furthermore, of the 60 percent of retailers that told customers there would be compulsory charges such as delivery, 24 percent then added extra, unexpected charges on top of this, including card charges.
The OFT has said that those retailers that do not change their sites to comply with the law may be taken to court and face fines.
Cavendish Elithorn, Senior Director at OFT, commented: “The OFT recognises that most businesses want to play fair with their customers and to comply with the law […] We encourage all online retailers to check their websites so customers can be confident their rights are being respected when they shop online.”