EU to make price transparency clearer for online shopping
New EU-wide legislation aims to improve consumer experiences online.
Consumer groups are applauding the new level of clarity in e-commerce.
On Tuesday, the EU's Council of Ministers approved a new piece of
legislation at a meeting in Luxembourg, which, among other things will
strengthen consumer rights while shopping online.
The 27 member countries now have two years to pass national
legislation to enforce the new rules that were passed by the European
Parliament in June.
One of the main benefits is that sites will no longer be able to sell additional services and have them already be selected.
"When shopping online – for instance buying a plane ticket – you may
be offered additional options during the purchase process, such as
travel insurance or car rental," the European Comission said in a
statement.
"These additional services may be offered through so-called
‘pre-ticked' boxes. Consumers are currently often forced to untick those
boxes if they do not want these extra services. With the new Directive,
pre-ticked boxes will be banned across the European Union."
 EU justice commissioner Viviane Reding brokered the deal A step in the right direction
The legislation is aimed at providing more transparency for products
and services, in addition to extra fees or charges. Following the new
legislation, online customers can refuse to pay if they were not
adequately informed prior to the purchase.
In addition to digital content, the EU now says that a website must
make clear "[information] about its compatibility with hardware and
software and the application of any technical protection measures, for
example limiting the right for the consumers to make copies of the
content," and that "consumers will have a right to withdraw from
purchases of digital content, such as music or video downloads, but only
up until the moment the actual downloading process begins."
European consumer groups and digital rights groups have applauded this move.
"I think that it is probably a helpful small step
in the right direction," wrote Joe McNamee, the head of European Digital
Rights, an online advocacy group in Brussels.
"Even certain otherwise reputable companies use
some quite underhand tactics through 'imaginative' use of default checks
in checkboxes on their websites (such as changing back to the default
'opt-in' if the user has to go back and change anything on a form).
These companies, at least, will be forced to adopt more transparent
policies by the legislation."
Author: Cyrus Farivar
Editor: Stuart Tiffen
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15455530,00.html
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