Over the past few years there has been a huge increase in the amount of goods available online to both businesses and consumers, and the increase of online selling and ecommerce solutions is one of the biggest ways for businesses to save money. As is common with most growing industries, the inevitable increase of governing legislation comes along with it. Looking over this governing legislation can be hard work so over the next few articles we will break it up to provide a comprehensive guide of law governing online sale in the UK. The legislation should be considered before anyone sets up ecommerce solutions and online sales process.
There are two examples of legislation that affects all online retailers in the UK. Firstly there is the traditional consumer protection regulations that apply to all consumer sales made online. These regulations have been around for a while and apply to online retailers the same way as they apply to traditional ones. The second example is regulations designed specifically to deal with issues that apply to online retailers and their ecommerce stores, ebay stores and facebook store.
Traditional consumer protection regulations, these protect the purchasers and consumers whether they are either buying over the counter in a retail store or over the internet through ecommerce software. The Sale of Goods Act provides certain rights to the purchaser about the quality of the goods they receive, it conveys their rights if the goods fail to live up to these standards. The Consumer Credit Act protects consumer rights when they enter into an agreement for someone to provide them with credit facilities incorporating circumstances when they buy goods or services using a credit card. The Unfair Terms in Consumer Contract Regulations protect consumer rights when they enter into agreements with retailers who try to impose unfair terms in the agreement.
Online regulations are a fairly new concept and have become mandatory because of the increase in online activity over the past few years with various ecommerce software and solutions becoming available. They were brought in to largely protect consumer rights when they buy products either online or over the phone. They are formed mainly through the EU Directives, and include Ecommerce Regulations, the Electronic Signatures Regulations and the Distance Selling Regulations. The previous regulations control the actual online sale process and they provide the starting point from which we take the practical business requirements of all online business and retailers.
The traditional consumer regulations are very important for new ecommerce solutions and have to be taken into account when building an ecommerce store, ebay store and facebook store, but in the following few articles we will concentrate on the online regulations and how they affect the various stages of the online sales process. As we go through the online regulations it will be outlined which information must be provided to the purchaser, the use of electronic signatures, contract engagement issues and ensuring that your ecommerce software, facebook store and ecommerce solutions are legal. By making certain that your online business is legal from the start there is more time to spend on marketing your new ecommerce store, ebay store, facebook store and less chance of worrying over legal issues.
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