The Consumer

Consumers are persons or households which consume goods and services, produced in the economy. Because consumers are the weaker party when concluding agreements with professional entrepreneurs, various rules are created to protect the consumer. Partly this has been decided by the Dutch parliament, but also in the European context. Moreover Europe is harmonising all consumer laws within the European Union and related member states.

Warranty in consumer law

Many consumers ask themselves what the warranty is on their bought product. When warranty is given with a certain product that means that the seller guarantees that the product satisfies the requirements that a consumer can ask from the product. There exist two sorts of warranty: the manufacturer’s warranty and the legal warranty. The manufacturer’s warranty entails a guarantee from the manufacturer that the product satisfies the expectations, set by the manufacturer himself. Mostly a manufacturer sets this warranty at a couple of months until a few years. Secondly a legal warranty exists. This type of warranty entails a guarantee that a product must satisfy certain

requirements which are common to that product, also concerning the lifespan of the product (the so-called principle of conformity). In The Netherlands no legal warranty periods exist, because one product is ought to have a longer lifespan than another. However when a product breaks within 6 months of the purchase, the law assumes that the fault lies with the seller. That seller also has the burden of proof with regards to whose fault it is that the product is broken. After these initial 6 months the consumer has to prove that it was not his fault that product broke.

Entrepreneurship and consumer law

Because there exist many rules in consumer law it can be hard to determine which ones apply to you as entrepreneur. We can help you with various questions related to consumer law, such as:

• Which rules apply for a call centre?
• Starting a webshop? To which rules does your webshop have to conform?
• Can you link a lottery to a promotion?
• Can you offer a trial subscription for your magazine?
• What can you do when the Consumer and Market Authority finds that you violated the rules?

Do you want to know more on this subject, please contact us. We gladly assist you with all questions related to consumer law.