Your rights if you sell via an online platform

What is an online platform (online intermediary service)?

An online intermediary service can be a large or small digital platform. You can use the platform to sell your products and services to consumers.

Examples of online platforms are:

• platforms for making restaurant reservations
• online marketplaces for clothing or meals
• sites that compare airline tickets or energy contracts
• app stores

Right to clear information

You have the right to clear information. For example:

Check the general terms and conditions

The information about search results and data and other information must be included in the platform's general terms and conditions in language that is easy to understand. These general terms and conditions must be clear to you when you conclude the contract.

Right to contact the platform

You must be able to contact the platform easily and directly. For example, via a telephone number, email, or contact form. The platform may not only offer automated contact, such as a chatbot.

Changing general terms and conditions

The platform must give you at least 15 days' notice if it wants to change the general terms and conditions. If you do not agree, you can terminate the contract during this period. Do new general terms and conditions require you to make significant changes to your business? In that case, the platform must let you know earlier that it is going to change the general terms and conditions.

The platform may not simply delete your account

The general terms and conditions must clearly state how you or the platform can terminate the contract. And in what situations the platform may delete your account or content. For example, if you do not comply with the general terms and conditions.

The platform must give you at least 30 days' notice that it wants to delete your account. And explain why. This does not apply if you break the law by, for example, selling banned products.

Help with problem solving

The online platform must help you solve problems (dispute resolution). The platform must have a complaints desk where you can report for free if the platform does not follow the rules. For example, if the platform deletes your account. The platform must also appoint someone outside the organisation to help you resolve a problem between you and the platform (a mediator). The rules for a complaints office and mediators apply to platforms with 50 or more employees and an annual turnover of €10 million or more.

Going to court

Are you unable to resolve the issue with the platform? Then you can go to court. The judge can assess whether the platform is adhering to the rules.

Extra rights when selling on large online platforms (gatekeepers)

Some of the largest digital platforms are subject to extra rules. These platforms are called gatekeepers. This is regulated in the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Currently, the extra rules apply to platforms owned by Alphabet (including Google Search and YouTube), Amazon, Apple (including Appstore), Booking.com, ByteDance (including TikTok), Meta (including Facebook and Instagram), and Microsoft (including Windows and LinkedIn).

If you sell via one of these platforms then:

• You may offer your products or services at a lower price or with better conditions on your own website or elsewhere. The platform may not include a ban on this in its general terms and conditions.
• You may have direct contact with your customers without going through the gatekeeper, even if you got the customers through the gatekeeper.
• The gatekeeper may not give better treatment to their own products or place them higher in search results.
• You have free access to your own (customer) data upon request.
• In app stores, you are entitled to fair conditions that are the same for everyone.
• You have the right to information about how your advertisements are performing on the platform.
• The gatekeeper's operating system must be able to work with other payment systems besides the gatekeeper's own system.
• The platform may not ban you from switching to another platform or registering for other apps.
• The gatekeeper may not require you to use additional services, such as its own payment service.
• The platform may not use data it collects about your business to compete with you.

Reporting to the ACM

Is a platform not adhering to the rules? You can report it (in Dutch) to the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (Autoriteit Consument en Markt, ACM). ACM can investigate the report. In some cases, ACM can fine a platform that does not comply with the law. In other cases, usually involving the largest platforms, ACM will forward the conclusions of its investigations to the European Commission. The European Commission may then impose a fine.