Tarbijaohtude ennetamine e-kaubanduses

Lõputöö käigus selgus, et kõige rohkem pöördutakse tarbijavaidluste komisjoni poole põhjustel, et kaupleja ei võimalda tarbijal kasutada 14-päevast lepingust taganemisõigust või ostja on tellitud toote eest maksnud, kuid toode kunagi temani ei jõudnudki ning kaupleja ei tagastanud tarbijale raha. Lõputöö käigus selgus, et eeltoodud ohte on võimalik ennetada mitmel viisil. Ennetusmeetoditeks on: • kontrollida alati enne e-kauplusest ostu sooritamist, et e-kaupluse haldajaks oleks juriidiline isik, sest nagu selgus, ei saa tarbija eraisikult ostes 14- päeva jooksul lepingust taganeda ega saa pöörduda probleemi korral Tarbijakaitse ja Tehnilise Järelevalve ameti poole; • tutvuda e-kaupluse müügitingimustega ja selgitada välja, millistel juhtudel ei ole võimalik ostetud kaupa tagastada; • tuleb teha kindlaks, et ettevõttel oleks e-kaupluses olemas kontaktandmed, et tarbijal oleks vajadusel võimalik e-kauplusega ühendust võtta; • e-kaupluse usaldusväärsust peaks näitama „usaldusväärse ostukoha“ usaldusmärgise olemasolu, mis küll ei pruugi tagada iga kord 100%-list kindlust. Nimekiri e-kauplustest, millel on antud usaldusmärgis, on leitav E-kaubanduse liidu koduleheküljelt; • tutvuda ebaausate kauplemisvõtetega, et neid vajadusel läbi näha ning sooduspakkumisi liiga tõsiselt mitte võtta. Ankeetküsitluse käigus selgus, et enamik küsitlusele vastanud tarbijatest teevad ohtude ennetamiseks eeltööd harva või mitte kunagi. Näiteks 58% vastanutest teevad harva või mitte kunagi selgeks, kas nad ostavad kaupa e-kauplusest, mida haldab juriidiline isik või eraisik. Samuti tutvub 53,8% vastanutest vaid harvadel juhtudel enne ostu sooritamise e-kaupluse ostu- ja müügitingimustega ning 26,3% vastanutest ei tee seda kunagi. „Turvalise ostukoha“ usaldusmärgise olemasolu kontrollib alati või tihti vaid 26% vastanutest. Samuti ei uuri 48,8% vastanutest, kas ettevõttel on kehtivad maksuvõlad või mitte ning 31,3% uurivad harva. Moodi arvutades selgus, et küsitlusele vastamisele kasutati kõige enam vastusevariante „harva“ ja „mitte kunagi“. Samuti selgus Tarbijakaitse ja Tehnilise Järelevalve spetsialistidega tehtud intervjuus, et sel aastal on tarbijavaidluse osakaal suurenenud. Peamised probleemid e-kaubanduses on – tarbija ei uuri, kellele ta ostu sooritades ülekande teeb, usutakse liialt sooduspakkumisi, ei kontrollita, kas kaup ostetakse juriidiliselt isikult või eraisikult. Järeldusena saab öelda, et tarbijate ohtude ennetamismeetodite rakendamise olukord praktikas on peaaegu olematu. Pea iga väite puhul ankeetküsitluses olid ülekaalus vastusevariandid „harva“ ja „mitte kunagi“. Kuna ennetusmeetodite rakendamine praktikas on peaaegu olematu, siis jätkuvad samad probleemid e-kaubanduses ka edaspidi.

Thesis „Prevention of Consumer Risks in E-commerce“ is about consumer related problem. The problem is that consumers do not do enough research before buying goods from e-shop which can lead to falling a victim to fraud. Consumers often do not examine who they are buying the goods from, whether the company has any tax depths or what is the shopping experience of other consumers. In 2019 the Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority pointed out in their press release that remarkable number of counsumers who turn to Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority have made hasty choices before buying goods and are later dissatisfied. The tasks of research were: • to provide an overview of the nature of e-commerce, the growth of its popularity in Estonia and the legal bases for consumer shopping; • to identify, using different sources, the potential risks of e-commerce and how to prevent them; • to present the assessments of consumers and the Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority on risk prevention in e-commerce in order to find out the state of implementation of prevention in practice; • as a result of the dissertation to draw conclusions about the situation of consumer risk prevention in e-commerce and, if necessary, make proposals to the Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority to increase consumer awareness of risk prevention. During the thesis we learned that consumers contact Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority mainly for following reasons: • trader does not let consumer use their 14 day right of withdrawal; • in cases where consumers had paid for their order but the ordered product never reached them; • the traider refuses to return consumers’s money. During the thesis it became clear that the above risks could be prevented in several ways. Most effective prevention methods are:45 • the consumer should always make sure that the e-shop is managed by legal entity, because the consumer cannot withdraw the contract in 14 days when they accidentaly buy from a private person and they also cannot contact Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority in case of problems; • get acquainted with the purchase and sale conditions of the e-shop and find out in which cases it is not possible to return the purchased goods. For example, in the course of the work, it became clear that it is not possible to return bikinis, underwear, make-up products, etc. in open packaging (which has been damaged by the consumer); • it must be ensured that the company has contact details in the e-shop so that the consumer can contact the e-shop if necessary; • the reliability of an e-shop should be demonstrated by the existence of a "Secure shopping“ trust mark, which may not always guarantee 100% security. A list of e-shops bearing the trust mark can be found on the Estonian E-Commerce Association's website; During analysis of the results of the consumer survey we found out that most respondents rarely or never do preliminary work to prevent risks of E-commerce. For example, 58% of respondents rarely or never make it clear whether they are buying goods from an e-shop run by a legal entity or an private person. Also, 54% of the respondents rarely read the purchase and sale conditions of the e-shop before making a purchase, and 26% of the respondents never do so. Only 26% of respondents always or often check the existence of the "Secure shopping" trust mark. Also, 48.8% of respondents do not investigate whether the company has valid tax debts or not, and 31.3% rarely investigate. Also, an interview with specialists of Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority revealed that the number of consumer disputes has increased rapidly this year. The main problems in e-commerce are - the consumers do not check to whom they are transferring their money when making a purchase, too many special offers are taken seriously and they do not make sure whether they are buying goods from juridical person or private person. In conclusion, the situation regarding the implementation of consumer risk prevention methods are almost non-existent in practice. For almost every statement in the questionnaire, the answer options “rarely” and “never” predominated. As the implementation of prevention methods in practice is almost non-existent, the same problems in e-commerce will continue.