Online marketplaces and comparison portals increasingly mediate purchases of goods and bookings of services. From a purely legal point of view, consumers often move on shaky ground. That is supposed to change according to the will of the consumer advocates.
Berlin (dpa) - Online platforms and comparison portals that bring dealers and buyers together on the Internet must be given greater legal responsibility, according to an expert opinion from consumer protection groups.
In particular, adjustments to contract and consumer law are required, says the report, which was presented by Prof. Christoph Busch from the Chair of German and European Business Law at the University of Osnabrück on Wednesday in Berlin. The paper was commissioned by the Federation of German Consumer Organizations (vzbv).
The association referred to numerous complaints from consumers. In many disputes, it was unclear who the contact person for the customers was. Customer service is often difficult to reach from intermediation platforms or does not help, for example in arranging rental cars. In connection with online marketplaces, consumers also reported problems with payment processing and unjustified collection claims.
Blocking contacts is also problematic because of "too many" complaints. At the same time, consumers would no longer have the option of returning outstanding orders, complaining about defects or reporting lost deliveries. Consumer advocates also made test purchases and investigated product quality complaints, as well as return and revocation issues.
Otmar Lell, head of the Legal and Trade team at vzbv, demanded that the "Digital Service Act" of the European Commission should describe specifically how online marketplaces should design their offer. The operators of online marketplaces would have to clarify the actual contractual partner.
The provider's declaration of whether he acts as an entrepreneur or as a private person must also be checked. Commercial traders in marketplaces such as eBay often disguised themselves as private sellers in order to avoid warranty obligations, it said.
In rankings and comparisons, no "non-relevant criteria" such as advertising purposes or commission payments should play a role. In addition, online marketplaces and comparison portals should have no influence on user-generated ratings. Many platforms use complicated algorithms here that weight the ratings differently and determine an overall rating that does not correspond to the average of all ratings submitted. To rule out that unfair manipulation takes place here, all criteria of the overall assessment would have to be explained - and in what proportion their importance is to each other.
