The European Commission launched a website in February to allow European online shoppers to complain about an online sale, but not every country has already joined the platform. Two major markets, Germany and France, are among the latter.
Another 6 to 12 months
The goal was to get all member states to join the initiative, but five countries have not yet joined: Germany, Luxembourg, France, Poland and Romania. It could take another 6 to 12 months before everyone is on board, according to the European Commission.
The new website does not handle the complaints itself, but merely acts as a mediator to help guide the consumer to the appropriate instance. This should help facilitate solutions for online purchase disputes. At the moment, the website is not a success because only a limited amount of European consumers know it exists. To remedy that situation, the European Commission will launch a campaign later this year.
