Digital trade — webshops cookies and right of withdrawal

Digital trade is its own subject area in the regulations for the web developer education: the student must be able to independently optimize and customize a webshop based on a case work with basic user tracking and have knowledge of basic rules and procedures within digital trade. That makes a webshop something different from an ordinary page — it is a commerce platform where code and law meet directly.

A web shop typically builds on a catalog of goods a cart that remembers what the customer has chosen and a payment solution that handles the transaction itself. The payment part should always go through an established payment provider rather than building your own — few companies have reason to handle card information directly themselves and it shifts a large part of security and compliance responsibility to a specialist in the field.

A web shop often uses multiple layers of cookies: some are strictly necessary such as the one that remembers the shopping cart while you continue shopping. Others are used for statistics and marketing — for example to see which products are viewed most or to target ads. As the article on GDPR describes non-necessary cookies require active consent before they are set; this applies just as much in a web shop as on any other site.

If you sell to consumers in remote sales — which a webshop by definition does — the Consumer Contracts Act applies. The basic rule is that the consumer has a 14-day right of withdrawal, which runs from the moment the goods are received. This requires that the company has provided the consumer with the required information about the right of withdrawal on a durable medium; if the information is not provided, the deadline is extended. If a purchase is withdrawn, the money must as a general rule be refunded as soon as possible and no later than 14 days after the company has been notified of the withdrawal.

A web shop must clearly state the price (including all taxes), shipping terms, payment options and the rights the consumer has including the right of withdrawal. Unclear or hidden terms are not only a bad customer experience — it can violate consumer law. As a developer it is your job to ensure that this information is actually accessible and understandable in the flow not hidden away in a footnote.

“A web shop is not just a technical solution — it is an agreement that is entered into with every click of 'buy'.”

— Rule of thumb from e-commerce