Rules for online sales and purchases (web shop)

Your website must provide full clarity about your company’s identity. Your customer must be able to easily find your company details on your website, such as:

• the name (trade name) under which your business is registered with the Netherlands Chamber of Commerce KVK
• address details
• contact details such as e-mail address, telephone number, and chat option
• your Netherlands Chamber of Commerce number (KVK-nummer)
• VAT identification number (btw-id)
• how you deal with complaints (and whether you are affiliated with a complaints board)

If you have an online platform and you are an intermediary, you must also provide information about the other businesses on your platform.

You must make clear exactly what you sell and what the costs are. Your customer should be able to read all the information before ordering, for instance:

• the features and characteristics of the products and services that you sell (in Dutch) such as size, colour, material, and model of the product
• what is needed to use the service, how often you supply the service, and what is included and excluded
• the price including VAT (btw)
• whether a price is personalised, for instance because of an algorithm that tracks what this customer has bought previously
• additional costs, for instance shipping costs or service costs
• how much and for how long your customer has to pay for a subscription or supply contract

You have to be clear about the accepted payment methods. You may not always pass on payment costs. And it should be clear at which step in the ordering process the customer will pay, for example by showing an 'order and pay' button. After the purchase, you must send your customer a written confirmation of their order.

If you offer subscriptions or supply contracts, you must provide your customers with information on how and when they can cancel or terminate their contract or subscription, and what the costs are (in Dutch). You must comply with the rules on notice periods, cancellation fees, and automatic renewal.

For the delivery of the products, delivery time, and which party bears the risk you should meet at least the following requirements:

• You tell your customer upfront where, how, and when you deliver.
• You must deliver within 30 days, or the agreed period.
• If you do not deliver on time, your customer may cancel the purchase and you must reimburse all payments that have already been made.
• You bear the risk of loss or damages until the customer has received the product.
• However, if the customer chooses a delivery service themselves, then the risk falls to that delivery company.

Do you operate an online platform and will the product be delivered by the supplier or manufacturer? You must make clear who is responsible for the delivery and the handling of returns (trader or platform) and what the return address is. If your web shop is established in the Netherlands, you must provide a return address in the Netherlands.

Is the product defective or does it not meet reasonable expectations? Then you customer is entitled to a statutory guarantee. You must also state whether you offer any additional guarantee and, if so, what kind.

You have to let your customers know how you deal with complaints and whether you are affiliated to a complaints board. Also, make sure to state the rate for calling your customer service department (in Dutch).

In case of online sales, your customers are entitled to a reflection period (cancellation period) of at least 14 calendar days. The reflection period starts from the moment your customer receives the product. Customers have the right to cancel their purchase during those 14 days without explanation or costs. You must offer your customer a withdrawal form with which they can cancel their purchase. You can post the form on your website, but you must make sure your customer knows where to find it.

In specific cases no reflection period applies. If any exceptions apply to an item, your customer must be informed about the exceptions when buying the item.

In case of online sales, you collect personal data from your customers, such as their name, address, and email address. You must comply with the rules for the protection of personal data (GDPR). For example, you may not ask for more personal data than necessary to carry out the sale. You must also let your customers know what you do with their data and why. You do so, for example, with a privacy statement on your website.

Do you offer products or services from different suppliers? Then present the natural order of the search results. If you change the order of the search results, you should explain how and why. For example because:

• the search result is paid advertising
• a customer gets a tailor-made offer (personalised result)
• a search result gets a higher ranking because it has been paid for
• a product has a better rating

Your customer must be able to find this information easily on the search results page, for example via a link. You must also include this in your general terms and conditions (if you have them). This applies to online market places, search engines, and comparison websites.

You must also clearly show which are real search results and which are paid results.

You must let your customers know when you advertise. Customers must be able to recognise when content is sponsored. This also applies if you use well-known persons (influencers) to recommend a product or service.

You cannot post false reviews, or have false reviews posted. You must check that consumer ratings and reviews are genuine before they can be put online. You must also let your customers know if and how you check whether a review or endorsement is from someone who actually bought or used the product.

You are not allowed to pay someone to post false reviews. You are also not allowed to manipulate consumer reviews and endorsements by, for instance, publishing only positive reviews and deleting the negative ones.

You may only post a notification about the availability or popularity of your product if that notification is genuine. For example, if your stock is genuinely running low, the offer is genuinely temporary, or if this is genuinely your best-selling product.

Do you use cookies to collect information about your visitors in order to offer them personalised services, for example? If so, you are collecting sensitive personal data. You may only use these cookies if your visitor has given their explicit consent first.

Do not use pre-ticked boxes if your customers can choose for themselves whether they want an additional product or service. For example, whether they want to purchase an additional insurance, or receive your newsletter. Customers must always give their consent explicitly.