Online cancellations continue to cause problems

For a good six months, consumers have had to be able to terminate paid term contracts, which are also offered online, using a cancellation button on the provider's website. These include subscriptions to newspapers or streaming services through to mobile phone or electricity supply contracts. However, there are still providers who do not meet this obligation or only do so inadequately. This is the result of an investigation by the Federal Association of Consumer Organizations (vzbv). For this purpose, 354 reports from consumers were evaluated as part of a consumer appeal and almost 3,000 provider websites were automatically examined for the implementation of the cancellation button.

“It is unacceptable that not all companies have yet implemented the cancellation button on time. “Companies had enough time to deal with the new legal situation and its effects on practice,” says vzbv board member Ramona Pop.

Implementation mostly poor

In the reports submitted, consumers sometimes complained that cancellation buttons were sometimes missing from the provider pages or were difficult to find. In other cases, the contractual relationship could not be terminated using the designated cancellation button, so that amounts of money continued to be debited even after the contract had ended. Other consumers described that they did not receive any confirmation of cancellation or that the cancellation could not be sent using the button due to a technical error.

The automated website analysis confirms the consumer reports: of the almost 3,000 websites examined, the vzbv only found implementation in accordance with the law in just under three out of ten cases (28 percent). On pages that did contain a button, the labels sometimes deviated from the specified wording, and in some cases the buttons were only visible to a limited extent at the end of the website. Consumers can therefore encounter significant obstacles and problems if they want to cancel a fixed-term contract online.

Further information

In a joint effort, vzbv, consumer advice centers and other consumer associations checked 840 websites from various providers in Germany between July 18 and October 14, 2022. Warnings were sent to a total of 152 companies due to clear violations of the law regarding the cancellation button: Further information on the warning campaign

Consumers can find further information and information at consumer center.de .

method

For automated website analysis, vzbv has developed a script in the Python programming language, with which provider websites were initially checked for the possible conclusion of term contracts. To do this, a targeted search was made on the websites for elements that contained key phrases that indicate the conclusion of a contract - for example, “Complete a contract” or “Start a subscription now”. In this way, 3,000 provider websites were identified that have been obliged to offer a cancellation button since July 1, 2022. Errors occurred when examining five websites, so they were excluded from the following analysis and the effective sample was 2,995 websites. Further information on the method can be found in the short report of the study.

In order to be able to uncover problems and grievances at an early stage, the Federal Association of Consumer Organizations (vzbv) analyzes market activity in the areas of digital, energy and finance. To do this, the market observation teams evaluate consumer complaints. With the results, the vzbv can initiate targeted measures to solve problems in the interests of consumers.

background

The termination button, which came into force on July 1, 2022, is required for almost all long-term obligations that can be concluded online. These include, for example, subscriptions, leasing or mobile phone contracts. It also applies to contracts concluded before July 1, 2022. The cancellation button is also required for contracts created in stores if these contracts can in principle also be concluded online. The termination button does not apply to contracts that are subject to stricter termination requirements by law, such as rental and employment contracts or financial services contracts.

Source:

Federal Association of Consumer Organizations

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