The Features of Consumer Rights Violations in Online Trading

Abstract

Introduction: the development of the Internet and e-commerce has largely changed the habits, behaviors, and preferences of consumers. This dynamic and efficient means of providing goods has been able to overcome many of the obstacles inherent in offline trading. This became especially relevant in 2020 and does not lose its relevance at the present time in the situation of the lockdown precedent on a global scale. It is possible to increase the protection of business entities and, first of all, consumers, if there is an effective system of the legal regulation of the sphere under consideration. There is a need for legally established guarantees, an appropriate level of legal regulation, effective measures, methods and means implemented within the framework of monitoring the compliance with the norms of the current legislation. To protect the rights of consumers, respect their legitimate interests, and create a civilized competitive environment, the state must fully establish legal means to ensure the rule of law in the field of online commerce without restricting the freedoms of entrepreneurs. The purpose of the paper is to review the current state of the violations of the rights of participants in economic relations that occur when making online purchases. Methods: in the process of writing the paper, general scientific methods (qualitative and logical analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, comparison, system approach, retrospective analysis, morphological analysis), and a special method (scenario analysis) were used. Results: the main aspects related to the legal regulation of electronic commercial activity regarding the protection of buyers are considered. It is indicated that when buying through e-commerce, various violations of consumer rights often occur. This is expressed, in many cases, in the discrepancy between the actual condition of the goods provided to the buyer with the information contained on the seller’s website, in the delivery of goods with obvious defects, non-compliance with the requirements of GOST. Conclusions: the protection of the rights of online buyers includes two main aspects. First, it concerns the protection of consumer rights regarding the improper quality of the delivered goods, the specifics of the purchase return, and the funds spent. Secondly, what the world community pays considerable attention to is the legal regulation and protection of consumer data privacy. It is noted that domestic researchers place more emphasis on the first aspect of the problem. It is indicated that the improvement of the legal regulation of e-commerce should be carried out following the global trends in the development of international law in this area.