A little spring cleaning.

Abusive promotions, fake reviews on the internet, door-to-door canvassing… A European directive comes into force this Saturday in France to better regulate certain commercial practices.

Adopted in November 2019 by the European Parliament and the European Council, this “Omnibus” directive is officially implemented in all EU states.

“Europe is taking the lead in increased regulation of marketplaces and e-commerce sites.

Many American companies operating in Europe will have to follow suit,” said John Hornell, vice president of Pasabi, a company that offers authentication solutions for e-commerce, in a note.

New for promotions

In France, the directive was transposed by an ordinance in December 2021. Among the measures provided for, the regulations oblige e-commerce marketplaces to verify that the notices published under the products offered for sale have indeed been issued. by people who have purchased the product in question.

They will also have to provide certain additional information to the consumer, such as the existence of a “capital link” between the seller and the marketplace, or request the consumer's consent when the right of withdrawal does not apply.

In addition, to combat excessive price reduction announcements, calculated from inflated reference prices, merchants will have to display the reference price from which the reduction is calculated.

This must correspond to "the lowest price charged by the professional to all consumers over the last thirty days", according to the order of December 23, 2021.

Better framed door-to-door sales

Sanctions are also reinforced in the event of breach of certain legal information obligations or in the event of abusive clauses in contracts.

In the event of a "large-scale infringement", it may reach 4% of the turnover of the target company.

The ordinance which comes into force also prohibits visits by home sellers if the consumer “has clearly and unambiguously expressed that he does not want to be the subject of such a visit”.

In the event of a breach of this rule, the seller may be punished by one year's imprisonment and a fine of 150,000 euros.

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  • Internet

  • Online sales

  • European Union (EU)