Online shopping query

Q: I ordered a polo shirt online and the seller has his business premises in Italy. I ordered a Large size after consulting the dimensions described on the website. When the polo shirt was delivered, I found out that the size was not right.

Even though the size on the polo shirt was marked Large, when I measured it I discovered that the measurements on the actual polo shirt did not match the online measurements. I tried to contact the shop to complain about this, but my e-mails did not get through.

Can you tell me what my rights are and how I can solve this problem?

A: When we buy through the internet or any other distance communication, legally we have cancellation rights. The law stipulates a period of time – not less than seven days if we are purchasing from another EU member state – during which we can cancel the sales contract for any reason and get our money back. This time period starts from the date when the goods are delivered to us.

However, in your case, since the size of the polo shirt was not as described on the trader’s website, legally you may request a remedy without incurring any additional cost. The remedy can either be in the form of replacement, or if this is not possible or might cause you a significant inconvenience, you may ask for your money back.

If you cannot contact the trader to obtain one of these remedies, you may file a complaint with the European Consumer Centre Malta. Since the trader resides in Italy, this is considered a cross-border complaint and therefore it is the European Consumer Centre in Malta (ECC Malta) who should deal with it.

Thanks to European Consumer Centres spread all over EU member countries, when consumers have a complaint with a foreign European trader, we can use our local centre to file the complaint.

ECC Malta may be contacted either via e-mail on ecc.malta@gov.mt or by calling 2122 1901