Two-Thirds Of EU Ecommerce Websites Break Consumer Rights Laws

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• published: 28 Oct 2016
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Digital Marketing News; http://webcertain.tv The European Commission has discovered that around 63% of ecommerce sites breach consumer rights, during a sweep of websites in the EU. The check covered just under 700 different ecommerce companies, and found that 436 of them were failing to meet EU consumer rules, such as providing “clear information on the right of withdrawal from a transaction”. Following the sweep, all offending websites were notified of the changes that needed making and, to date, the number of sites complying with all regulations has risen from 37% to 88%. Sites that still haven’t changed their pages to meet EU rules, will next be targeted with legal proceedings from their own governments. The Chinese microblogging site, Weibo, is to begin building a system on its site to assist its users in turning ‘online influence’ into money. The company’s CEO has said that the platform will help users define their own brands, by offering them the opportunity to monetise their popularity with ads and pay-per-read posts. Currently, Weibo has over 340,000 users that it deems influential, and has put aside 100 million yuan to invest in those accounts. It has also created partnerships with over 300 multi-channel networks in order to help bloggers with cross-platform promotion and funding for their brands. These investments come after it was announced that so far on Weibo, users of the site had earned 11.7 billion yuan in total, using the services currently available. According to research from IMS and comScore, 90% of people in Latin America with a smartphone are connected to the internet. The report, which analysed digital trends in the region, looked into the usage of smartphones of those aged over 15 in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Peru and Chile. It found that within the LATAM region, 85% of Argentinians used their devices to visit social media sites on a regular basis including Snapchat, which along with Spotify saw strong engagement compared to other platforms amongst millennials. Senior Director of comScore in the region, Marcos Christensen, said of the report that it showed that “smartphones are the go-to device for many consumers as we see people across the region turn to mobile for everything". He also added that he expected the increase in mobile usage to be reflected in the behaviour of marketers, who would soon move their resources away from platforms such as TV and radio. A study performed by the Interactive Advertising Bureau Australia has shown that 27% of people in the country now make mobile purchases on a weekly basis. This new data points towards a rapidly expanding mobile landscape in Australia, especially in the m-commerce sector. Another study by Criteo supports the data as well, after it showed how Australians’ ecommerce buying habits compared to their Japanese and South Korean counterparts. Whilst it was shown that Japan had seen a 2% increase in its m-commerce share of digital transactions in the last six months, and South Korea seeing a 3% increase, Australia saw a 7% rise in the same period. And finally, the Thai government has demanded that it meet with Google representatives in order to force the search engine to remove any online content that slanders its royal family. Since Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej died in early October 2016, the country has tightened its laws around negative online content regarding the family, meaning people can face long jail terms if found guilty of such behaviour. Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister, Prajin Juntong, has also announced that he has met with Google, who said that the search company would agree to help the government remove offensive videos from YouTube.