Laws applying to online sales

Overview

There are two distinct types of legislation that affect online retailers.

Firstly, there are traditional laws to protect buyers that apply to online retailers as much as they do to traditional bricks-and-mortar ones, such as:

• Laws that aim to protect consumers from unfair commercial practices (e.g. aggressive sales tactics, misleading information and fake reviews); and
• Laws that protect both commercial and consumer buyers from unfair contract terms.

Secondly, there are regulations designed to deal exclusively with the unique challenges consumers face when purchasing goods and services online.

Protecting consumers from unfair commercial practices

The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (DMCCA) revokes and replaces the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations for all unfair commercial practices that occur or continue on or after 6 April 2025.

However, the old regulations continue to apply for unfair commercial practices that occurred before that date.

Protecting all buyers from unfair contract terms

The Sale of Goods Act gives certain rights to commercial (i.e. business) buyers, for example by stating that goods sold must be of satisfactory quality and must be as described.

The Unfair Contract Terms Act also protects commercial buyers when sellers attempt to exclude or limit their liability for breaching the sales contract, e.g., for selling goods that are not of satisfactory quality. Sellers can only include these types of clauses in their business-to-business contracts if it is reasonable under the circumstances

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 gives similar rights to consumers, e.g. that the goods sold must be of satisfactory quality and match their description. It completely completely bans sellers from getting around this by putting clauses into contracts, therefore giving consumers more protection than commercial buyers.

The Consumer Credit Act protects consumers' rights when they enter into an agreement for someone to provide them with loans or credit facilities, including circumstances where they buy goods or services using a credit card.

Regulations exclusively governing online sales

The following regulations protect buyers' rights when they buy products either over the internet or by telephone.

The Electronic Commerce Regulations put obligations on sellers to provide certain information to buyers (both commercial and consumer).

The Consumer Contracts Regulations also deal with information requirements, while also giving consumers a right to cancel.

The Electronic Identification and Trust Services for Electronic Transactions Regulations cover the role of electronic signatures.

The issue of how disputes must be resolved are covered by the Alternative Dispute Resolution for Consumer Disputes Regulations. These will be revoked and replaced by the DMCCA when its relevant parts are brought into force.

The next sections focus on some of these laws and regulations and how they affect the various stages of the online sales process.