subject: The Legal Implications Of Not Promptly Removing Recalled Products From Your Online Shop [print this page] Some people feel that they would start a website on which to sell their products (an eCommerce site) but fear that removal of an item may take longer and break the law if it is unsafe.
If you have an unsafe product that has been recalled, then you must remove it from your shelves and take whatever action that was given to you by the manufacturer or wholesaler. People sometimes worry that they are not able to remove products from their online store quickly enough. Sometimes they have to wait until they get home to access their website, and sometimes they need to call their designer. Other times it may simply be a case that removing the product for the website takes time no matter what the circumstances, i.e. even if they have access to the website from wherever they are.
The truth is that there are lots of reasons why it may take longer to remove a product from your website. It will most likely take longer to remove it from your site, than it will to walk through your shop and remove it from your store. Nevertheless, having it on your website for a little longer is not breaking the law.
If you have your web marketing handled (for example) by an Online Marketing London firm, then inform them of the recall and make sure that they stop running adverts for that product and remove it from your website promptly. This counts as due diligence in obeying the recall request. Then just so long as you do not post out any goods that have been recalled, then you are perfectly within the law.
If you are unlucky enough to have an online customer buy the product between the time you get the withdrawal notice and the time you have to take it off your site, then simply contact the customer. As most Online Marketing London firms would tell you, every contact with a customer is an opportunity to sell. You could tell them that they have been recalled/withdrawn from the market, but that may affect your reputation negatively. Instead, why not tell them that the item is out of stock due to a shipping error, so you are giving them a 5% discount voucher for use in your online store. Then offer them some clever alternatives. You dont have to worry about them going to your competitors in search of the item that you just cancelled, because your competitors will have had to remove that product from their lines too.
If your recall notice is just for one batch of goods, i.e. during a certain date period, then simply do not post out those items. Just because somebody buys something online that you should not send out, does not mean that you have to. The distance selling regulations state that if you cannot meet the order as agreed in the purchase, then cancel the purchase quickly, send a notification to the customer, along with an apology, and promptly return all of their money/payment.
