Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000.

[easyhosting]

This is some vital advice for anyone selling hosting etc. to any EU Consumer, even if your business is based outside of the EU

 

Information direct from http://www.oft.gov.uk/advice_and_res...g-regulations/

 

Distance Selling Regulations

 

If you sell goods or services to consumers by:

 

* the internet

* digital television

* mail order, including catalogue shopping

* phone

* fax

 

then you need to know about the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000.

 

The key features of the regulations are:

 

* you must give consumers clear information including details of the goods or services offered, delivery arrangements and payment, the supplier's details and the consumer's cancellation right before they buy (known as prior information)

* you must also provide this information in writing

* the consumer has a cooling-off period of seven working days.

 

Download our business guide Home shopping: Distance Selling Regulations (pdf 127 kb).

[webhost 4 less]

Hi Easyhost,

 

Thanks for your post.

 

We have found that if you add the following to your invoice email:

 

By paying this invoice you are agreeing to our T & C

 

and we are also going to be putting on our checkout the fact that if you pay for the order you will be bound by our T & C with a link to them.

 

We have had it confirmed that by doing this is withiin the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 act.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Cheers

Jim

[easyhosting]

Hi Easyhost,

 

Thanks for your post.

 

We have found that if you add the following to your invoice email:

 

By paying this invoice you are agreeing to our T & C

 

and we are also going to be putting on our checkout the fact that if you pay for the order you will be bound by our T & C with a link to them.

 

We have had it confirmed that by doing this is withiin the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 act.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Cheers

Jim

 

yes but your T & C must have a clause explaining the 7 day cooling off period (7 day MBG) otherwise you are not compling with the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 act. as this is what the act is based around.

[PJamie]

The Distance Selling regs do have a number of exceptions. The ones that are most likely to apply to hosts are:

 

1. The service starts before the end of the cooling off period (the 7 days), or;

2. goods or services made to the consumer's specification or clearly personalised

 

The first one will amost universally apply, while the second one is more of a grey area because the OFT (Office of Fair Trading, who police these regulations) don't necessarily consider a computer specification to be sufficiently "personal" to warrant exclusion from these regulations. In that case you would probably have to show it was significantly different from the normal specifcation of server you would normally provide.

 

If the regulations don't apply then I don't think you need to mention them, but there's no harm in doing so.

 

The regulations that most hosts in the UK are going to fall foul of are

 

1. Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999, and

2. Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008

 

I've not seem many hosting contracts that would fully comply with them, and most contain clauses that would automatically be considered as unfair - according to the OFT published guidelines - that they could get the company into hot water and could potentially void the contract. I suppose the saving grace is that most consumers aren't fully aware of their rights either which is why nothing seems to happen.

[easyhosting]

WRONG

 

The OFT (Office of Fair Trading) police B2B dealings. The Distance Selling regs only apply to B 2 Consumer which is policed by Consumer Direct (Trading Standards).

 

This is why when i designed my TOS, i handed them to Trading Standards to go through and fully check, and they ripped them to shreds with a lot of amendments or word changes. they also checked them to comply with

 

1. Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999, and

2. Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008

 

which they had no problem with mine compling with these regs.

 

 

The Distance Selling regs do have a number of exceptions. The ones that are most likely to apply to hosts are:

 

1. The service starts before the end of the cooling off period (the 7 days), or;

2. goods or services made to the consumer's specification or clearly personalised

 

The first one will amost universally apply, while the second one is more of a grey area because the OFT (Office of Fair Trading, who police these regulations) don't necessarily consider a computer specification to be sufficiently "personal" to warrant exclusion from these regulations. In that case you would probably have to show it was significantly different from the normal specifcation of server you would normally provide.

 

If the regulations don't apply then I don't think you need to mention them, but there's no harm in doing so.

 

The regulations that most hosts in the UK are going to fall foul of are

 

1. Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999, and

2. Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008

 

I've not seem many hosting contracts that would fully comply with them, and most contain clauses that would automatically be considered as unfair - according to the OFT published guidelines - that they could get the company into hot water and could potentially void the contract. I suppose the saving grace is that most consumers aren't fully aware of their rights either which is why nothing seems to happen.

[PJamie]

I don't want to get into a flame war, but i can assure you that the OFT are the ultimate arbitrar when it comes to consumer protection legislation (apart from Court), and they are the ones who would take action on a national level regarding legislation and breaches of consumer law.

 

Trading standards are a sort of "local" organisation you can talk to and visit with offices nationally, and Consumer Direct are a public face of Trading Standards but they are part of the same organization, and both are part of the OFT. The OFT is the over-arching body. You only have to look at Consumer Directs address...

 

Consumer Direct

Office of Fair Trading

2-6 Salisbury Square

London EC4Y 8JX

 

From the OFT's website about what they do (http://www.oft.gov.uk/about/what/)...

 

Prevention

Preventing harm in the first place is better for consumers than taking enforcement action afterwards. One of the ways we do this is by equipping consumers and businesses with the knowledge they need to protect themselves against unlawful practice.

 

 

They cover both Consumer and Business legistation and regulation and are interested in the protection, enforcement, and possibly even prosecution of breaches of consumer legislation.

 

I'm aware that the DSR 2000 are based only on B2C transactions, and the exceptions that I quoted are real. If you supply the service before the end of the 7-day cooling of period, the consumer cannot then cancel the order under the protection of these regulations. It's not wrong, it's not my interpretation, it is a fact...check it out if you don't believe me.

 

 

The fact that the links in your username lead to a company selling products is a completely different thing from most companies on this forum who are hosting companies. While I guess the DSR2000 would very much apply to your business, it is unlikely to apply to many hosting companies since account activation is usually immediate and almost invariably within 7 days.

 

I'm glad your Terms comply with other consumer protection legislation, but that is the exception rather than the rule, and I still contend that most hosting companies Terms that I've seen would sturggle to be even marginally compliant with the Unfair Terms and Unfair Trading Regulations.

[easyhosting]

 

The fact that the links in your username lead to a company selling products is a completely different thing from most companies on this forum who are hosting companies. While I guess the DSR2000 would very much apply to your business, it is unlikely to apply to many hosting companies since account activation is usually immediate and almost invariably within 7 days.

 

I'm glad your Terms comply with other consumer protection legislation, but that is the exception rather than the rule, and I still contend that most hosting companies Terms that I've seen would sturggle to be even marginally compliant with the Unfair Terms and Unfair Trading Regulations.

 

 

the link in my username

 

Easyas ABC Hosting ~ Virtual Private Servers

Domain Reseller

 

are all hosting links. i have been in the hosting buiness for the last 10 years and know what the law is as i work very closely with my local Trading Standards. Trading standards will act and take action on consumer affairs without any intervention from the OFT, while the OFT will deal with b2b affairs, yes the OFT is the central government department that overseas all trading regulations.trading standards will quite happy give advice to the consumer and small businesses as they a deparment in their own right and are based locally within the local government infrastructure. Consumer direct was set up in conjunction with TS and OFT as a direct calling point for the consumer only and is run from the OFT offices.

 

I also agree with your point that a lot of hosting companies terms would fail under the Unfair Terms and Unfair Trading Regulations. it only takes a phonecall or email to your local trading standards office and ask them to look over your terms to see how compliant they are.

[bear]

Since you're replying to a post made nearly two months ago, I'd suggest the posters here have moved on.

</thread>