Duty to inform and right of withdrawal, what is that?
If you manage a webshop, you must stick to certain rules, laws and obligations. Think of the duty to inform and the right of withdrawal. No idea what this actually means? Read on quickly and find out.
Duty to inform
Duty to inform literally means that you provide certain information to your customers. The information you must provide before the purchase takes place is:
1. Contact details of your business
Think of your business name, address, phone number and, if applicable, email address.
2. Your Chamber of Commerce and VAT number
Adding this information ensures consumers see that the business really exists.
3. Order information
Here you state which product it concerns, what the product features are and in what quantity the order is possible.
4. Payment information
State the price of the product, say whether the price includes or excludes VAT, and show which payment options are available.
5. Shipping
State the delivery time of the product and any costs attached to it.
6. Returns
State under which conditions a product can or cannot be returned and within which time frame this is possible.
7. Warranty
State whether there’s a warranty, how long the warranty is valid and which conditions apply to it.
The above information must be clearly findable on your webshop and the language must be understandable for your customers. It’s also important that customers receive this information after the purchase. This can be done by including the information in, for example, a confirmation email.
Right of withdrawal
The buyer can withdraw from the purchase within 14 days of receiving the product. This is described in the right of withdrawal. As a webshop manager, you’re required to have the right of withdrawal and the established standard form on your website. Is your customer not informed about the right of withdrawal? Then the customer has one year to withdraw from the purchase. After the customer has let you know they’re withdrawing from the purchase, for example by having filled in the standard form or sent an email, the customer still has 14 days to return the product.
There are a number of exceptions to the right of withdrawal, such as:
Privacy and personal data
In addition, there are rules set for a webshop regarding the processing of personal data. To send the products, you need the personal data. But you may not keep this data longer than necessary. You also need to inform your customers about what happens with their data, you may not ask for more data than necessary, and you must take extra security measures. Informing your customers about privacy happens through a privacy policy that can be found on the webshop. And through the cookie policy. You’re probably familiar with the pop-ups asking whether you accept the cookies. Want to know more about cookies? Read it here.
Am I meeting my obligations?
Make sure all the information is available on your webshop. This namely gives customers confidence. But then you do need to make sure the available information is also correct. Want to be sure everything is right and that you meet the duty to inform and the right of withdrawal? Then get in touch with us.