Another month and another directive from the EU, this time it’s the EU directive on Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition (ECGT) which has just come into effect.
The directive introduces new consumer information requirements which includes rules for how product guarantees are displayed, and making environmental claims. These will apply on all sites that you trade on, and eBay have provided some helpful tools to make this easy. This may include providing information necessary to display the Durability Guarantee, where applicable. Additionally, eBay will add the EU Legal Guarantee to eligible listings.
The EU require a minimum 2 years of protection EU-wide for faulty or non-conforming goods, handled by the seller. Free repair or replacement first; price reduction or a full refund apply if repair or replacement is impossible or disproportionate.
Under ECGT, the Durability Guarantee informs EU consumers about the protections offered by the producer before purchasing an item. Producers may voluntarily provide a Durability Guarantee free of cost on an entire product for a period of time greater than 2 years.
If the Durability Guarantee is available from the producer, business sellers need to add the relevant information about the item they’re selling to their listing. Here’s how:
- Start a new listing or go to an existing listing.
- Choose the product category.
- The Durability Guarantee fields will only appear for listings in eligible ECGT categories and for listings targeting EU buyers
- Go to Item Specifics and enter the Brand and Model (or model identifier) of the product.
- In the Durability Guarantee field, enter the value in whole years, from 3 to 99 years.
- Select Save.
Once you’ve added the information, eBay will ensure the Durability Guarantee is displayed to buyers in the EU.
In addition to the Durability Guarantee and EU Legal Guarantee, ECGT also means that your listings must not include any misleading environmental claims. This means you can’t include misleading information about sustainability, durability, repairability, or the environmental benefits of an item.
