Online Merchants Should Watch Out!

 

A German Federal Court judgement of special interest to online merchants ruled that shipping costs in the event of a mail order cancellation were inadmissible.

In a court action brought by the North Rhine Westphalian Office of Consumer Protection against Heinrich Heine GmbH the Federal Court ruled that customers who use their legal right of revocation by sending back mail order goods did not have to pay a flat rate for shipping. The Karksruhe mail order fashion company had charged its customers €4,95 to €5,95 for shipping. This was not reimbursed when the order was cancelled.

The North Rhine Westphalian Office of Consumer Protection claimed this represented unacceptable  business practices, since according to the European directive regarding distance selling consumers only have to pay the costs of sending the goods back. Even this applies in certain cases only.  The Office of Consumer Protection claimed shipping costs were not  part of  the immediate costs of sending the goods back, nor were they to be seen separately from the purchase price. For this reason the mail order business could not claim compensation for its shipping costs. This means the customer only has to pay for the immediate costs of returning the goods. (Source: www.ecin.de)

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