Stealth selling banned

Tough new EU laws will soon make it illegal for airline ticket websites to make customers ‘untick’ unwanted services such as travel insurance or car rental. Currently, many online shoppers are vulnerable to ‘stealth selling’. This means that unless they physically untick the boxes, they will end up paying a lot more than they originally thought.

But under a recent directive from the European Union, these boxes will soon be illegal. Customers will also have a longer cooling off period, too – having 14 days rather than seven to change their minds about any contract they may enter into.

Richard Lloyd, executive director of Which?, the consumer watchdog, has welcomed the news, saying:

‘It's about time selling by stealth was banned. Household budgets are under enough pressure without people having to keep an eye out for unwanted extras when shopping online. If a product or service is good enough, people will actively choose to buy it.’

The 27 member countries of the European Union have two years to implement the rules.