According to research by World IT Lawyers, a majority of European websites violates EU directives protecting on-line consumers. More than half of the researched websites lacks essential information about the on-line buying procedure or the consumer right to cancel an order within 7 days. On top of that, almost half of the websites of companies and institutions lack a privacy policy. The research compares websites from France, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Websites within the EU should comply with several EU directives, such as the Privacy Directives from 1995 and 1997, the E-Commerce Directive and the Directive on long-distance selling. 60 percent of the websites don't explain the exact buying procedure to consumers. An equal majority doesn't explain the right to cancel an order within 7 days, no matter what the reason is. Only in Great Britain a majority of companies complies with the obligation to explain the procedure. But less than 50 percent of these companies point to the right to cancel an order. In Switzerland, Portugal and the Netherlands, more than two-thirds of websites omit to tell about this crucial consumer right.

The researchers have also looked at the availability of the standard business terms (SBT). Almost 70 percent of the websites don't allow users to download these terms. And if they do, only in 6% of the cases they offer them in the freely available PDF-format. Germany even scores a saddening 0 percent on the availability in PDF.

A copy of the report is available via info at degier-stam.nl (refer to Louise de Gier).