In the last few days, eBay.de has made technical changes to the display of the offer pages. As a result, the dealer’s cancellation policy is unfortunately no longer displayed openly on the item page, but is only hidden under the “Shipping and payment” tab, which must be clicked on beforehand.
What is it about?
For retailers who sell to consumers over the Internet, it is extremely important that they correctly inform consumers about the existing right of withdrawal, even before the online order is completed.
This is done through a cancellation policy, which must be presented to the customer online no later than the time at which the consumer submits his contractual declaration.
The cancellation policy must be presented in a clear and understandable manner. It is not necessary to tick off the cancellation policy in a checkbox. However, the cancellation policy may not just be hidden somewhere on the website.
If no (correct) cancellation policy is presented or if it is hidden in such a way that the consumer cannot reasonably take notice of it, then this is problematic.
On the one hand, from a competition law point of view, because this circumstance is capable of giving rise to a warning and can therefore be made the subject of a warning under competition law by a competitor or warning association.
On the other hand, from a contractual point of view, because the customer then has a right of withdrawal extended to 12 months and 14 days, meaning that he can withdraw from the contract concluded with the dealer for over a year and this without being obliged to pay compensation.
What does eBay do?
In the last few days, eBay.de has significantly changed the way the cancellation policy is displayed on the item pages.
Previously, the cancellation policy was displayed in a transparent manner directly below the eBay seller’s legal notice and general terms and conditions by opening the cancellation policy when you clicked on the “Full cancellation policy”.
eBay.de has now removed the cancellation policy from the display of the item detail page or moved the cancellation policy to the “Shipping and Payment” tab, the content of which only appears when the site visitor actively clicks on this tab.
Where is the problem?
The problem with the new method of presentation is that, in our view, the consumer is no longer transparently informed of the cancellation policy, including the sample cancellation form, before he submits his contractual declaration.
In particular, the consumer has no reason to suspect or look for the cancellation policy under the “Shipping and Payment” section, since the right of cancellation cannot be thematically located in the area of payment or shipping.
However, as part of the new display method, the cancellation policy can still be accessed by clicking on “More details” under the “Returns” item in the “open” item display below the price.
However, in our opinion, this link is also too opaque, especially since this reference to the cancellation policy is under the name “returns”, but the consumer will not suspect a cancellation policy under the name “returns”.
From a legal perspective, the new representation is more than unfortunate.
Dealers who sell on eBay.de should therefore point out that the cancellation policy can be accessed in their new “place” due to the new display.
Workaround
It remains to be hoped that eBay.de will soon reverse this new way of display.
In the meantime, in order to minimize the risk of warnings, eBay dealers can point out in their imprint on eBay.de that the cancellation policy can now be accessed under the “Shipping and payment” tab.
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Conclusion
Unfortunately, we currently do not know why eBay.de made this unfortunate change.
We will immediately contact eBay.de’s legal department, point out what we believe is the associated legal risk for the dealer and ask that the problem be remedied.
In the meantime, traders can counteract this with the “workaround” described above.
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