Since July 1, 2022, companies operating in Germany must offer the so-called cancellation button on their websites. Customers should be able to cancel contracts online without much effort. The consumer advice centers and other consumer associations wanted to know whether and how the new legal regulation would be implemented and started looking for the cancellation button. The result is sobering: The majority of the websites checked had significant legal deficiencies, and the majority were in the gray area. The consumer associations therefore warned a total of 152 companies. Legally compliant cancellation buttons were only found on 273 of 840 websites checked.
Online termination: serious defects discovered
The required cancel button was completely missing on 349 websites. In 65 cases the cancellation button was hidden on the website and in 38 cases the label was not permitted. In addition, consumer advocates found 339 further violations in connection with the confirmation page and the final confirmation button. For example, mandatory information was missing or there were inadmissible labels. The consumer advocates therefore warned 152 companies across Germany for clear violations of the law - some for several websites at the same time.
By November 2, 2022, 86 companies had shown understanding and signed the requested cease-and-desist declaration. In three cases, consumer advocates obtained an interim injunction and in 17 cases, consumer advocates are preparing lawsuits or have already filed lawsuits. “Other companies that have not yet received a warning from us have also immediately improved their pages,” says Tatjana Halm, lawyer at the Bavarian Consumer Center. “Consumers benefit directly from our warning campaign.”
Consumers can participate
The consumer advocates examined 840 websites from various providers across all industries between July 18 and October 14, 2022. They will continue to advance the procedures initiated in this warning campaign and check the websites of other companies. If consumers find providers who do not have a cancellation button on their website or who hide it, they can report this to consumer advocates at www.verbraucherzentrale.de/problems-mit-dem-kuendigungsbutton-76779 .
Legal background
The termination button, which came into force on July 1, 2022, is required for almost all long-term obligations. These include, for example, subscriptions, leasing or mobile phone contracts. Companies that offer online contracts must offer their customers the option of terminating contracts online. The cancellation button also applies to contracts that were concluded before July 1, 2022. It is also required for contracts created in stores, if these can in principle also be concluded online. The termination button does not apply to contracts to which stricter termination requirements apply by law, such as rental and employment contracts or contracts for financial services.
Legal requirements specify that this must be a clearly designed button. A confirmation page is also required by law to provide the necessary information. There must be a clearly labeled confirmation button on this page, for example saying “cancel now”. Both buttons, those for cancellation and those for confirmation of cancellation, must be constantly available and accessible from every subpage of a website without logging in.
Further information can be found at www.verbraucherzentrale-bayern.de/kuendigungsbutton
source
Consumer advice center
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