Judges to perform stricter checks on information provided by seller

Information 

When you buy something, the seller is required to give you important information about the product before the purchase, including the necessary information about:

• the features and characteristics of the product (e.g., a woolen jumper)
• their identity and address details
• the amount you have to pay and how you have to pay
• the delivery time, if applicable 
• the cooling-off period (the time you have to cancel your online or telephone purchase)

If you’re buying a service, such as a telephone plan, the seller has to let you know how long the contract will last, as well as providing information on the rules for cancelling the plan. 

Checks 

If you initiate legal proceedings against the seller, e.g. because they did not inform your properly prior to the purchase, judges must now perform stricter checks to ascertain whether the seller complied with all information rules. From now on, judges will check whether the information about the product or service: 

• can be easily found
• is clear and legible
• was confirmed to you in writing after the purchase, so you can look it over later. Consider, for example, a confirmation email or letter. 

Consequences 

If the seller did not provide you the required information, the court will decide on the consequences. We have outlined two situations and the potential consequences: 

• If the seller did not provide any information about the costs for returning your order, the court may decide that you do not have to pay these costs. 
• If the seller did not provide any information about how long you have to cancel your contract, the judge may give you more time to cancel the contract. 

If it is clear that the seller failed to provide you with important information, the court may:

• undo the contract entirely or partially 
• decide that you do not need to pay any additional fees
• decide to 25% to 50% of the total amount if the seller failed to provide important information  

Guidelines 

Until recently, there were no clear guidelines for judges that outlined what they were supposed to check or what consequences sellers could face if they failed to provide all the necessary information. New Dutch guidelines (Dutch website) have put an end to this ambiguous situation.