In January 2016, a new, annoying and very warning-prone obligation for online traders was added: the one to refer to the new online dispute resolution platform of the EU Commission (“OS platform”). At that time, every retailer had to adapt their imprints and ensure that an active, i.e. clickable, link to the OS platform was included. This also applies to eBay offers, where display problems are currently occurring in this regard.
What is it about?
Since January 9th, 2016, a legally secure dealer imprint must also contain information on online dispute resolution.
This means that every trader who is based in the EU and (also) concludes paid contracts with consumers, the consumer
– must inform that the EU Commission has an online dispute resolution platform, and
– has to display a mandatory clickable link to this OS platform.
Of course, the imprint made available to clients by the IT law firm has included the necessary new information since this date.
Do you need a legally secure imprint? Together with a legally secure, DSGVO-compliant data protection declaration, we can offer you this for as little as EUR 5.90 plus VAT per month. offer as part of our data protection package – of course permanently up-to-date and secured by the update service.
You can find more information about this here.
A guide to the practical implementation of these requirements, also on common sales platforms, can be found here.
Warning reason number 1
Especially in the early days, the new requirement was ignored thousands of times and thousands of warnings were the result.
To date, there are numerous imprints without this new mandatory information. Another common mistake: only the Internet address of the OS platform is given, without displaying a direct clickable link to it.
Errors in the imprint are always a legal problem and can lead to warnings from warning associations and competitors.
The lack of information on the OS platform or the lack of a clickable link to it quickly made these points the number 1 reason for warnings in e-commerce. Thousands of warnings were the result, thousands of contractual penalties had to be paid as a result.
One more reason to take care today that your own imprints are set up cleanly.
Problems with eBay.de
Of course, the new obligation that has been in force since January 2016 also affected dealer presence on sales platforms and the imprints there had to be adjusted accordingly.
Implementing the new obligation on sales platforms such as Amazon, eBay or etsy was not easy. Such platforms have always tried to prevent the display of active, clickable links by the sellers working there. Probably mainly because there is a fear of being redirected to your own shops and the associated avoidance of commission.
That’s why it probably came as a surprise to many platforms that retailers were now obliged to display an external, clickable link in their imprint.
For example, on eBay.de it was initially not possible to store a clickable link accordingly. Depositing was possible later, but the link was only clickable in the desktop view, not in the mobile view or the view in eBay’s own app. A circumstance that is likely to have given many dealers warnings and contractual penalties.
Also currently there seems to be a problem with eBay.de when it comes to clickable links to the OS platform.
A number of retailer complaints reach the IT law firm
For about a week, eBay dealers have been reporting to the IT law firm that their link to the OS platform in the imprint is not (or no longer) clickable.
Specifically, the display of the (previously clickable link) as part of the eBay imprint then looks as follows:
In this way of presentation, the HTML code is no longer interpreted correctly by eBay and the link to the OS platform can no longer be clicked.
This representation is clearly problematic, even if it is only for a short time. Unfortunately, it is also not legally decisive that the dealer has basically done everything right and eBay is showing technical changes that will probably lead to problems here.
So what to do?
First of all, it should be noted that the problem described only occurs very occasionally and then mostly also not reproducibly.
Apparently eBay.de is experimenting with displaying a new layout.
Affected dealers reported that the article images were also displayed differently than usual. In many cases, the “spook” was over after a few minutes or even after reloading the offer.
Although the problem occurred several times with a specific eBay item, it could no longer be reproduced using a different network or browser.
For this reason, it is unfortunately very difficult to determine the specific cause and to find a remedy for the problem.
However, we are currently assuming that eBay alone can remedy this and that the dealers themselves have no means of influencing the display of the OS link in a clickable manner in the “new layout”.
The problem is a bit reminiscent of that phenomenon described here regarding the missing information in the imprint on eBay.de
The possibility of a warning cannot be ruled out, but in practice it should be regarded as very small. In particular, a “serial warning agent” can neither specifically provoke the problem according to the current situation nor reproduce it at will (which might be necessary to preserve evidence if a warning is to be given).
Affected dealers are recommended to take screenshots of the problem and to contact the eBay seller service, stating the affected eBay offer(s) and referring to the legal problem.
Conclusion
At the moment eBay.de seems to be experiencing problems with the display of the OS link in individual cases.
Apparently, the HTML code to be stored in the imprint on eBay for the necessary “clickability” is no longer interpreted correctly in these cases and is output directly instead of the clickable link to the OS platform.
The exact cause of this is currently unknown. It can be assumed that eBay’s temporary technical changes are responsible for this. Dealers report a brief, different layout of the articles.
Accordingly, it is currently very difficult to find a solution as a retailer. Probably a remedy is currently in the influence of eBay.
A theoretical warning risk for the retailer cannot be ignored. In practice, however, this should be classified as very low.
It is to be hoped that eBay will improve this soon and the error will be eliminated.
Are you looking for legal texts that are safe from warnings (imprint, terms and conditions, data protection declaration and cancellation policy), for example for eBay.de, or would you also like an intensive legal examination of your sales presence?
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