On March 7, 2025 the European Commission and national consumer protection authorities of 25 Member States as well as Iceland and Norway released the results of a screening (‘sweep’) of online traders selling second-hand goods, such as clothes, electronic equipment or toys.
‘
Sweeps’ are coordinated by the European Commission and carried out simultaneously by national enforcement authorities. The objective of this sweep was to verify whether the practices of these traders are compliant with EU consumer law. Consumer authorities checked
356 online traders and identified
185 (52%) as potentially in breach of EU consumer law.
Out of the total amount of traders screened:
- 40% did not inform consumers of their right of withdrawal in a clear manner, such as the right to return the product within 14 days without justification or cost;
- 45% did not correctly inform consumers of their right to return faulty goods or goods that do not look or work as advertised;
- 57% did not respect the minimum period of one year legal guarantee for second-hand goods;
- Out of 34% of traders that presented environmental claims on their website 20% were not sufficiently substantiated and 28% were manifestly false, deceptive, or likely to qualify as unfair commercial practices;
- 5% did not provide their identity correctly, and 2% did not provide the total price of the product, including taxes.
Consumer authorities will now decide whether to take action against the 185 traders that were earmarked for further investigation and request compliance according to their national procedures.
Background
The
Consumer Protection Cooperation (CPC) is a network of national authorities responsible for the enforcement of EU consumer protection laws. Under the coordination of the European Commission, they collaborate to tackle infringements of consumer law occurring in the Single Market.
Traders’ obligations with regards to consumer information are covered by the
Consumer Rights Directive and the
e-Commerce Directive. Traders’ commercial practices must not mislead consumers and comply with the
Unfair Commercial Practices Directive. When selling second-hand goods, traders should also respect their obligations regarding the legal guarantee of conformity stated in the
Sales of Goods Directive.
The new
Directive on Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition, once transposed by Member States into their national law, will ensure that consumers are provided with better information on the durability and reparability of goods and the consumer’s legal guarantee rights at the point of sale. It will also strengthen consumer protection rules against greenwashing and early obsolescence practices.
The main sectors of activity concerned are clothes, accessories, electronic equipment, toys and gaming items, books, household appliances, interior design and furniture, CDs and vinyls, childcare products, cars (including electric cars), sport items, spare parts, motorbikes and bikes, gardening items, do-it-yourself and others.
The following EU Member States participated in the sweep: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden. Iceland and Norway also took part to the sweep.
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