No more pseudo-prices, fictitious reviews, or unfair sorting practices for sponsored offers! In 2023, the e-commerce market is about to experience the biggest revolution in nearly 4 years (i.e. since the introduction of the famous GDPR).
Do you run an online store and dread paying tens or even hundreds of thousands of złoty in fines for failing to meet the new legal obligations? There’s no time to waste. Check out now what regulations came into effect on January 1, 2023, with the introduction of the EU Omnibus Directive. The WP Care team will help you implement all the changes!
The Omnibus directive – what is it?
There has long been discussion about new regulations in the retail market designed to enhance consumer protection. Initially, they were planned to be implemented in January 2022, then in May, and ultimately they came into effect with the new year 2023.
The Omnibus directive – since when in Poland?
On January 1, 2023, new consumer protection regulations were introduced, implementing three EU directives: Omnibus, the Goods Directive, and the Digital Directive.
In recent years, the European Union has undertaken several initiatives aimed at adapting existing laws to market changes and digital development. One of these is Directive 2019/2161, more commonly known as the Omnibus Directive, which came into force on January 7, 2020. According to it, all EU member states had until May 28, 2022, to implement the new EU standards into their national laws. Poland was a bit late, but they finally did.
As a result of the directive, four areas concerning consumer protection have been amended:
- The Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (2005/29/EC),
- The Unfair Contract Terms Directive (93/13/EEC),
- The Consumer Rights Directive (2011/83/EU),
- The Price Indication Directive (98/6/EC).
Although these regulations apply to the entire retail sector (both online and offline sales), the online sector will feel the impact of these changes the most.
Mandatory price reduction information – the biggest change in the new regulations
This is one of the largest and most important changes. Artificially inflating prices before promotions on Black Friday? That practice will no longer work…
From now on, for every promotion, stores are required to display, alongside the reduced price, information about the lowest price of the product within the last 30 days. This ensures that the customer knows whether the so-called “promotion” is truly a price opportunity or merely a marketing trick.
Remember!
If you change product prices for reasons unrelated to a promotion, you do not have to display the price history.
Are you launching a new product? If it is included in a promotion sooner than 30 days after being added to your offer, you must provide its lowest price from the moment the product was launched until the start of the price reduction.
We will implement a plugin that displays the lowest price from the last 30 days in your WooCommerce store
With WP Care, you don’t have to worry about the new regulations! We will comprehensively implement a mechanism that automatically records the lowest prices over the last 30 days and displays them on the product page in your WooCommerce store.
The service includes installing a dedicated plugin, adapting its visual appearance to your store’s installed theme, post-deployment testing, and 12 months of support in case of plugin issues.
The Omnibus directive – what else does it mean for your WooCommerce store?
Mandatory information on store reviews
According to social research conducted in 2020 on behalf of UOKiK, 93% of people check reviews of a product before deciding to purchase. It’s no wonder that stores are keen to display customer comments. Unfortunately, not all reviews are always genuine.
Therefore, if you collect and publish customer reviews of products purchased from your store, you are required by the new regulations to provide information on how you verify that the reviewer actually bought the product (for example, by sending a review request only to those who have placed an order).
Moreover, it is forbidden to manipulate the content and display of reviews. This means you cannot, for instance, show only positive comments while hiding negative ones. Such actions artificially boost your brand’s reputation and can result in a penalty from UOKiK.
Personalized pricing, user behavior profiling, and product ranking
Do you display different prices to users based on their location, browsing history, or the device they are using? If your online store uses such mechanisms, you must inform your customers that the price has been tailored specifically for them.
The same applies to product ranking. Your site should provide information on which parameters determine the order in which offers are displayed. This applies not only to traditional e-commerce stores but especially to marketplaces and price comparison sites. There, you must also clearly indicate which results are sponsored.
Mandatory phone number
Previously, online stores were only required to display the company’s registered address and an email address on their website. From now on, sellers are also required to provide a phone number that ensures quick and effective contact, for example, regarding complaints. It seems basic, yet many online stores still lack this information.
The Omnibus directive – you will face fines for not meeting the new obligations!
- If you fail to provide information about the lowest price within 30 days, the Provincial Inspector of Trade Inspection may impose a fine of up to 4670 EUR.
- If you fail to comply with this obligation three times within 12 months from the date the violations are detected, the fine can be as high as 9335 EUR!
- Failure to comply with the mandatory information requirement (e.g., on how reviews are obtained), in accordance with the Omnibus Directive, may be deemed an unfair market practice. In such cases, a customer who purchased from your store may take the matter to a consumer rights advocate and demand contract cancellation and a reduction in the price of the product or service. And that’s not all…
- If UOKiK finds that your actions jeopardize consumer interests, they have the right to fine you up to 10% of your annual turnover from the previous year!
If you need to implement the Omnibus Directive for your online store – trust the specialists. We offer not only WordPress website creation but also comprehensive technical support. As WP Care, we have years of experience, which guarantees the high quality of our services.
Contact us, and we’ll surely help you!
