As of 1st of January 2022 the Law for Supply of Digital Content and Digital Services and Sell of Goods(LSDCDSSG) passed last March entered into force.
The law implements the requirements of the Directive (EU) 2019/771 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 2019 on certain aspects concerning contracts for the sale of goods and Directive (EU) 2019/770 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 2019 on certain aspects concerning contracts for the supply of digital content and digital services.

The changes are applicable for retailers, selling goods to consumers as well as for the retailers supplying to the consumers digital content and digital services.

The law is aiming to guarantee the rights of the consumers and to provide them with higher degree of protection.

What are the consequences for the retailers?

1. The law provides higher requirements and more obligations for the retailers when selling goods and supplying digital content and digital services.

When selling goods additional to the now existing individual requirements for conformity of the goods, new objective requirements are passed. Example: The goods should have quantities and qualities as announced publicly by the retailers including in the advertisements. In case the retailers advertises a battery as lasting for 3 hours, but the battery lasts only 2 hours it will mean that there is a discrepancy in the objective requirements and the retailer could be sanctioned while the consumer has the right of compensation due to the discrepancy.

2. The law passes longer terms for the defects of the goods.
Until the moment the law was passed any discrepancy that appears up to 6 months since the goods were bought was such existing in the time of the sell, now the term is 1 year.

It is very important to know that the new law does not abrogates all right and obligations of the retailers under the Law for the Protection of the Consumers. The retailers should take into account both laws whenever they sell goods. The authorized body for the new law is again the Commission for consumers protection.

What should you do?

1. Examine the guarantees of the goods that you sell. Change it in a way to be up to date with the new requirements.

2. Check your registry of claims for goods and change the inner rules and instructions for the registry and putting claims.

3. Know the new obligations you have in order to be prepared for the new communication with the consumers.

Please note that this news is current as of 07.01.2022 and each case is strictly individual. This news is for information purposes only and does not constitute specific legal advice. Therefore, before you take specific action, and if we have not been able to answer all your questions, we recommend that you contact us and we will be happy to assist you. Every first consultation with us is completely free!