What legal requirements must a webshop meet?

What legal requirements should you pay attention to when starting a webshop? You decide to get started with a webshop. Whether this is a brand new business, an extra webshop alongside your existing business, or part of your existing (physical) business, all sorts of things are involved. To get a webshop up and running, among other things a payment system, shipping system and stock system must be integrated. And what about being findable and visible online? And lastly, think about which legal requirements come with a webshop. We’ve listed them for you!

Duty to inform

Selling products online is different from physical sales. This applies to shops, but also to wholesalers or technical businesses. You must inform the buyer properly and correctly about which company is behind it. But the sales process, from ordering to paying to returning, must also be made known to the customer. This all falls under the duty to inform.

The terms and conditions

The terms and conditions contain the rules about the cooling-off period, returns, privacy, etc. Terms and conditions aren’t mandatory, but they’re handy to have. In short, terms and conditions state under which conditions/terms a business operates. They serve to protect the entrepreneur, think for example of liability. It’s also nice for the other party (consumers) to know what their rights and obligations are. There are standard documents in which all terms and conditions are written out. Nice and easy, right? Yes and no, because it’s possible the standard terms don’t match the service you offer. That’s why it’s very important to check carefully whether the terms and conditions actually fit your webshop.

Why terms and conditions?

By correctly stating on your webshop what a customer’s rights and obligations are, you can resolve a dispute more easily. The customer has, after all, been able to read all the documents. It’s important that all the documents then also match what you tell and deliver. And that you then also stick to this yourself.

Right of withdrawal

With an online purchase, the customer has no option to try out a product beforehand, as is sometimes possible in physical shops. After a consumer has ordered a product, they have the right to cancel the purchase within 14 days. This information, and which agreements go along with it, must also be clearly stated on the webshop. If a consumer isn’t properly and/or fully informed about the existence of the right of withdrawal etc., there are consequences attached to this.

Processing personal data

A webshop collects personal data such as name, address and bank details. The GDPR applies to this. Having a privacy statement isn’t mandatory. But what is mandatory is that it’s stated what happens with the personal data. That’s the reason a privacy statement is often found on the webshop. It’s of great importance that the information in the privacy statement is correct.

Technical requirements

Besides the GDPR rules, it’s also important that the webshop has an SSL certificate. This is an encryption of personal data which extra secures the data. Customers are also increasingly only going to websites with an SSL certificate. Building in a cookie notice is also mandatory. Cookies keep track of what a customer does on the website, but this information may not always be simply collected, shared or used. There are various types of cookies you can place. Do you want to collect as much data as possible? Then you can build in a cookie notice. This way you inform customers about the information you collect. Customers can then choose for themselves whether they accept the cookies or not. If no consent is given, you also may not collect this data.

Most webshops work with a newsletter. Certain rules also apply to sending newsletters and collecting addresses. For instance, you can’t just add an email address to your list or mail it. A customer must give explicit consent to receive emails. In addition, every newsletter must include an option to unsubscribe.

Do a legal check

When you start selling online, you do have to stick to a number of rules. If you don’t, this can have unpleasant consequences, such as a fine from the supervisory authorities. On this page from Rein Advocaten, you can find even more information about the topics above.

Together with Rein Advocaten, Webba has designed a legal check. This check can be used for new and existing webshops. Besides the check, you can talk with us and receive advice about making your webshop legally correct. Quickly get in touch with us and arrange for your webshop to meet the legal requirements!