This was uncovered by the Alliance of Lithuanian Consumer Organisations (LVOA) in its implementation of the project ‘Consumer-friendly Online Retail’. During the project, it was analysed whether websites offering consumer goods and services are in line with consumer protection requirements.
“It is the right of consumers to terminate an online agreement within 14 days without indicating a reason and without facing extra charges. The reminder about this legal guarantee is a piece of information business owners often ‘forget’ to indicate on their online stores,” the project lead, LVOA board member Evelina Gruzdienė says.
With the project hitting its halfway mark and with experts having analysed over 100 online stores, not a single website that is in line with all consumer rights requirements has been found. That said, the breaches vary greatly – from old information to cases where neither the seller’s identity, nor an email address, nor the final price of the goods or delivery conditions are indicated. Warranties are also not offered or are not in line with the timelines indicated in legislation.
Information for customers is particularly lacking in online stores based in social media, where it is difficult to identify the seller, and the price of the goods is only indicated upon writing a personal message.
Regardless as to whether the social media profile is used for business purposes, the requirements applied are the same as for websites, and it is possible that if issues emerge, the likelihood of terminating the agreement or demanding a warranty would be very low.
Often, online stores also display traits of unfair commercial activity – for example, when goods are offered a two-year warranty or when the goods can be returned within 14 days, it is presented as exceptional service for customers despite being mandatory requirements.
While implementing the project, the LVOA informs online stores about the flaws it finds and sets a deadline to remove them. If the business owners do not respond to LVOA messages, information on the breaches is presented to the State Consumer Rights Protection Service, which has the right to set sanctions.
According to LVOA representative E. Gruzdienė, the project seeks not to punish, but to spread relevant information: “Of course, business owners selling online must ensure that consumer rights are upheld, but the goal of our project is to perform monitoring so that we can see what is lacking, and offer advice. After analysing the flaws, we prepared memos for business owners and consumers on what they need to know while selling and buying online.”
The Alliance of Lithuanian Consumer Organisations is an organisation that defends and represents the interests of consumers and unites 13 Lithuanian consumer organisations. We are Lithuania’s only members of the European consumer organisation BEUC (Bureau Européen des Unions de Consommateurs), having been a member since 2013. The organisation’s identification number in the European Union Transparency Register is 506497923503-90.
