Hannover Who sells and who is responsible? Marketplaces and platforms on which consumers conclude contracts with third parties must indicate whether a company or a private individual is selling something. Because in the case of a private sale, there is no right of withdrawal and, as a rule, no warranty. Booking and comparison portals must also explain whether they take on certain tasks for the providers listed by you, for example with rental cars. This is important because otherwise it may not be clear who is responsible for problems and questions. What price do I see? Retailers and marketplaces must specify when they display personalized prices to consumers. In other words, prices that are tailored to a person using personal data or features by an algorithm. Attention, do not confuse: this new regulation does not apply to so-called dynamic prices, which fluctuate more or less violently over time, but apply equally to everyone. Dynamic prices are explained by the consumer centers in their fictitious online shop ” Wasistdeinpreis.de “. Which providers are compared? Comparison portals must use a list to identify which providers have been included in the comparison. This is to prevent the erroneous impression that the entire market has been mapped in comparison. One problem remains: consumers need to know other important providers in order to be able to take them into account in their search, complain the consumer advocates. The portals must now also explain how their list of results comes about. An extra information area should indicate which main parameters are taken into account during the creation and how much they influence the overall result. This can be the number of views, ratings or the number of sales, but also commissions and fees. How do I rank online reviews? Shops or portals must explain whether they are taking measures to ensure that reviews only come from customers who have actually bought or booked the respective product or service. And you need to explain what these measures look like. Here, too, from the point of view of consumer protection, a problem remains: providers are not obliged to introduce measures to combat fake reviews. Stricter rules are desirable, because reviews are an important source of information for many when shopping online, but are often manipulated or falsified. Attention: Excluded from the new information requirements for online trading are contracts for financial services such as loans, insurance and the retirement provision of individuals.
More online shopping transparency from the end of May
