E-tailers watch out: OFT on drive to increase consumer awareness and enforcement

Paul Gershlick — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 11:15:14 +0000

The Office of Fair Trading is on a drive to increase the education of consumers shopping online, so that they are more aware of their rights and what to do if things go wrong. The OFT is also keen to ensure that enforcement agencies such as Trading Standards step up the quality of their enforcement. E-tailers had better watch out! The OFT wants its strategy to come into force by the end of this year. In the meantime, it is consulting on its proposed strategy. The consultation is open to comment until 13 October and can be found here: http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/consultations/eprotection/oft1252con.pdf.

European Commission decides to clamp down on discriminatory Internet prices…

Mark Weston — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:47:16 +0000

The European Commission has announced that it is going to clamp down on the practice of web sites charging different prices to customers depending on their surfing habits or their locations. Following a survey of 11,000 test purchases, it has found out that 60% of orders made online from another country are turned down by the e-tailer. E-tailers often charge more money or refuse the order altogether. The Commission said that discrimination based on location will be prohibited when the EU’s Services Directive is implemented. Under that Directive, Member States must end discrimination, except to the extent that it is objectively justified. The UK’s Office of Fair Trading has also vowed to look into the matter and decide whether consumers were being disadvantaged by discriminatory pricing and behavioural advertising.

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E-tailers watch out: OFT on drive to increase consumer awareness and enforcement

European Commission decides to clamp down on discriminatory Internet prices…