Helping sellers with legal compliance

Legal stuff can be pretty dull and is often wrapped up in dense language which probably accounts for the fact that many sellers don’t take time to understand what they need to do to comply with UK law. If you’re selling things you are bound by law to do certain things.

As a marketplace Folksy should try and make it as simple as possible for you to comply. This post sets out how we’re going to do this*.

Compliance

In the UK consumers have certain rights and these rights are more specific when buying through the internet on a platform such as Folksy. The specific rights of consumers when buying on the internet (or via mail order or over the telephone are enshrined in Distance Selling Regulations (PDF 130kb) and these apply across the European Union. See also the Folksy support page on legal compliance.

Examples of things sellers are required to provide according to the Distance Selling Regulations (DSR), include:

• Contact details such as email address in a durable medium, visible to the buyer before payment
• The business address, visible to the buyer before payment for an item has been made
• A refund on an order cancellation within seven days, unless the item is bespoke for the buyer (for example, made to order)
• A refund for an item that is faulty up to six months after purchase – to include any cost incurred in returning the item (the item does not have to be returned for you to be required to pay a full refund).
• Delivery or postage information (i.e. when and how the item will be delivered)
• A full description and payment details for the item

Whilst these are the main points there are more requirements and we urge you to read the document above on Distance Selling Regulations more fully or seek legal advice if you are unsure. Your local Trading Standards office can usually help.

Misunderstanding

Many sellers contact us under the misapprehension that they can dictate their own shop policies and often include these in their profile pages. However, in reality and under UK law they have to comply with the above regulations and they have to do so in a way that the buyer can see them in the process of buying an item. So, firstly there is very little that you can state as your own policy that wouldn’t contravene UK law and secondly, the way that people currently try to comply isn’t helpful to buyers as they are buried away on profile pages.

So, what can you state as your own distinct policy?

You can state your own terms in respect of:

1. Shipping or postage policy – when you post the item and when the buyer can expect to receive it.
2. Returns and cancellation policy – if the item is made-to-order then you can state if you are willing to accept cancellations of orders (you are not required to).
3. Returns and cancellation policy – if the item is not faulty you can optionally chose to pay for the cost of returning the item (the buyer would usually be expected to pay for the cost of returning the item).

How we plan to make it easy for you to comply

We want to make it easy for buyers and sellers to er, buy and sell! We don’t want legal complexity or confusion to get in the way.

This is how we are going to help you comply.

1. Standard terms that buyers understand. We’ll provide standard terms on all item pages which you can accept in the listing process.
2. Item specific terms for shipping / postage and returns. This will be introduced to the listing page as both postage and returns are item specific.
3. Returns requests. A field for you to politely request certain things in order for a refund to be made (but this is just a request).
4. Provide contact information about you to the buyer in a way that is contextually relevant. We will be be providing this information at the end of the checkout process and in order confirmation email.

What is good for buyers is generally good for sellers

Buyers like certainty and look for signs of trust in any relationship, especially one where they are buying online. We want to provide a simple set of standard sales Terms on Folksy that buyers and sellers understand. These sales terms will be things that you agree to in the listing process. By providing information where buyers want it – on the item page – we will be providing clear information to create a pattern in which they trust where they’re buying.

Your personal data

We will be providing the contact email address and also the physical address (business address) of the seller to buyers when an order is made. We will be providing the information before the payment stage (i.e. before PayPal payment) on the Folksy site and also in the confirmation email to buyers. This is necessary to comply with Distance Selling Regulations and consumer rights. The contact information will not be easily accessible to people who are not ordering. As someone selling online you need to provide contact information in the form of an email address and a physical address of the business, it is not something you can choose to opt-out-of. You need to be comfortable that your contact details (which is often a home address) will be shared.

What you need to do now

We have added a new field to the shop edit page to collect your physical address. Please fill this in. We will be notifying existing sellers on the dashboard page and requiring this information from any new sellers.

We’d prefer it if Profile Pages were used to say more about the story of you, how you make things and the why you’ve chosen to do what you do. That’s what the Profile Pages were intended for and buyers like that.

These changes will start to be released in the next few days in the new checkout pages (with Guest Login work) and continue for the next month with the improvement to the listing process.

*  This post does not constitute advice on compliance (for which we advise you should speak to a solicitor), merely how we aim to help you be compliant.