What is the Consumer Omnibus Directive?
On 28 May 2022, the “Omnibus Directive” ((EU) 2019/2161) will come into effect. This law aims to refresh consumer law in the EU and will involve new requirements when dealing with consumers.
As well as introducing specific legal requirements, these new rules will also strengthen consumer remedies and the penalties available to national regulators in the event of non-compliance with consumer law. In particular, national governments are required to introduce a new maximum penalty of no lower than 4% of a trader’s annual turnover in the relevant market(s) (or EUR 2,000,000 if annual turnover information is not available).
What do the new rules mean for you?
A key aim of the new rules is to give consumers more transparency when making purchases online. As part of this, we are making a few updates to just-eat.ie in order to provide consumers with more information about our online marketplace. In particular – customer reviews, search rankings and the professional trader status of partners that operate on just-eat.ie.
There are other requirements introduced by these rules that may impact you directly. Below are a few examples:
Displaying your email address
As part of these new rules, you’ll need to provide an email address that can be displayed to customers so they can contact you via email directly. We are working on how we can support this on your restaurant page on just-eat.ie and will be in touch with further details soon.
Please note that the email that you provide will be displayed to customers on the platform. We therefore advise you not to use your personal email for this purpose.
“Dual quality” goods must be identified
This will apply to goods that are marketed in the same way in different markets (e.g. a branded product that’s advertised identically to consumers internationally) but actually have different quality formulations or characteristics in different markets.
If you do not know this information for the branded menu items you sell on just-eat.ie, contact your relevant suppliers or goods producer to check whether your goods would be considered “dual quality” and if you will need to inform consumers that the item is a local version.
If so, your supplier or producer should provide you with the required wording and you should include this as part of the product description you make available on your menu item within just-eat.ie. Menu updates should be made via your usual process.
False customer reviews will be prohibited
Procuring or posting false customer reviews will now be prohibited by law (including paying consumers to submit a positive review of a product).
If we have reasons to suspect such false review on our platform, we may remove it in accordance with our review guidelines and the terms between just-eat.ie and you.
Changes to price reduction announcements
You might need to adapt the way you make price reduction announcements (e.g. a discount) on just-eat.ie, depending on your national legislation. We are working on how we can support you with this on your restaurant page on and will be in touch with further details.
Key Link
Omnibus Directive” ((EU) 2019/2161)
Reminder
These rules come into force on 28 May 2022. Look out for how your country’s government has introduced this legislation as there could be local differences between each country.
This is not legal advice and it’s recommended that you should check and monitor your local government legislation yourself to ensure you have all the correct and up to date information.
