Nearly a third of online marketers surveyed by the U.K. Office of Fair Trading are breaking laws designed to protect shoppers, said the agency.
Specifically, the OFT found that 31% of sites appeared not to refund the full cost of returned goods, a cornerstone of European distance selling regulations.
The survey also found that 40 % of sites failed to tell customers that compulsory additional charges would be added to an item until the checkout stage of a purchase.
These unexpected charges are estimated to run in the range of 100 million pound ($283 million) a year, the report noted.
The sweep was undertaken as a follow-up to an OFT report last summer on Internet shopping. That survey found that the majority of online shoppers were not aware of their rights under the distance selling regulations.
The OFT analyzed more than 500 U.K. shopping Web sites to see if they complied with consumer protection laws.
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