Webstore Operators, Is Consumer Protection On Your Radar?

The past year of the COVID-19 pandemic was a year of dizzying growth for online retail. Some estimates place the growth of online retail sales at about 22%, with growth having been the fastest in over a decade. With customers avoiding brick-and-mortar stores and spending their time shopping from home, a well-functioning webstore has been a vital source of income and engine of growth for many companies.

In Finland, online selling is considered distance selling as defined in the Consumer Protection Act (38/1978). Distance selling involves numerous obligations relating to information and consumer rights that cannot be deviated from to the detriment of consumers. As this subject is particularly important to many consumer webstores in the current situation, I have listed a few things in this post that every online vendor should be aware of.