A common scenario for those who love to shop through Facebook, Instagram, and Internet forums is that there are plenty of merchants out there that refuse to display the price of their products and insist shoppers to send them a private message instead in order to find out the actual price tag. This could be a thing of the past as the authorities are now on a mission to clamp down such practice.
According to Dato’ Mohd Roslan Mahayudin, the Enforcement Director for Ministry of Domestic Trade, Co-Operatives, and Consumerism in an interview with New Straits Time, the ministry has decided to enforce the law after being lax about it for quite some time in order to allow merchants to adapt.
He further points out that both online and offline merchants are being scrutinised with the same amount of attention. As required by Consumer Protection (Electronic Trading Transaction) Regulations 2012, merchants must display these details on their listings or sites:
- Full prices of the goods or services, including the taxes and transportation or other costs.
- Name of the person operating the business/ The company and business name.
- Business/Company registration number.
- Contact details including but no limited to e-mail address, telephone number or address of the person running the business.
- Description of the main characteristics of the goods or services.
- Payment methods.
- Terms and conditions.
- Estimated delivery time.
Shall they failed to comply to the rulings, online merchants could be facing jail time of no more than three years, fine of up to RM 50,000, or even both. Well then, time to buck up, online merchants.
(Source: New Straits Times. Image: KPDNKK. Thanks to everyone who sent the link!)
