Many online companies are failing to comply with statutory legal issues, a new West Midland survey reveals.
Oct 28 2009 by Jon Griffin, Birmingham Post
Research carried out by Black Country law firm Higgs & Sons shows that businesses with online presences are often failing to meet their obligations.
Amy Shakespeare, a solicitor for Higgs & Sons, said: “We undertook some research as part of an online seminar held in Wolverhampton and reviewed all attendees’ websites.
“Less than half of the websites we reviewed contained all of the statutory information required, only 38 per cent of companies had privacy policies displayed on their site and only 46 per cent had notified the Information Commissioners Office that they process personal information under the Data Protection Act.”
An EU investigation found similar results after examining 369 websites selling electronic equipment in 28 European countries and found that 55 per cent of them appeared to break consumer protection laws.
It found that the biggest failure was related to consumers’ rights to return goods purchased over the internet within a seven-day cooling off period.
It is estimated that by 2011, 32 million UK consumers will be shopping online and the value of goods will be £52 billion. Amy said: “Online businesses must comply with national implementations of the EU’s directives, including the Distance Selling Directive, Unfair Commercial Practices Directive and E-Commerce Directive.
“In particular, websites should display a certain level of information about the company, clear information about the product and price and consumers rights.
“Being compliant however need not cost a fortune, for example a privacy policy can be drafted relatively cost-effectively and will assist a website owner in complying with the information requirements in the Data Protection Act, Companies Act and, in some cases, Distance Selling legislation. In comparison, the consequences for online traders with non-compliant websites can be severe. Both civil and criminal penalties can be imposed on individuals as well as the company.”
