It's Business Baby - Updates to Distance Selling Regulations Demystified

From June 13th 2014, the UK government are updating the old Distance Selling Regulations to the Consumer Contracts Regulations.  If you're a UK business that delivers products, whether that be physical or digital, or services, you'll need to update your terms and conditions of contracts or you'll be trading outside of the law. The main changes to legislation for selling physical products via the internet are as follows:

• Consumers now have the right to cancel their order for a minimum of 14 days after receipt of the order instead of a minimum of 7 days. This does not include made to measure or personalised items. This 14 day period is regardless of how long it takes to deliver the item to the customer.
• You must refund basic cost of delivery when orders are cancelled, regardless of the reason for cancellation. Returns delivery is still liable at the customer's expense unless the product arrives faulty.
• You must provide details of the key information of the contract either on paper or on another 'durable medium' e.g. the order confirmation email. This includes; 

         - description of goods/services
         - the total price of goods/service
         - cost of delivery and details of who pays for returning the item if the customer decides to   cancel their order
         - details of the customers' right to cancel
         - information about the seller and how to contact them

• You must make a standard cancellation form available to make the cancellation process easy for the consumer. The consumer is not obliged to use this to cancel the order, though. 
• Refunds must be made within 14 days of receipt of returned goods, or 14 days of the customer's proof of postage, whichever is soonest. The customer must make this proof of postage available to the you in order for this clause to be adhered to.

We'll be making sure our order confirmation emails include all key information, updating our terms and conditions on our website and our email templates to reflect the extension to refund timess and making sure our returns form details who is responsible for paying for returns' postage. How will you be preparing your business for the updated regulations?

Disclaimer:  I am not a solicitor, and this is merely my interpretation of an update to legislation. To ensure you're in full compliance with the law, please ensure you read the governments' Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013

Image via Death To The Stock Photo