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Consequences for business
The guidelines have regulatory burden effects for the business community. These can be broken down into administrative burdens and substantive compliance costs. Administrative burdens are the costs that the business community has to incur to comply with information obligations towards the government that arise from legislation and regulations. Substantive compliance costs consist of costs incurred by the business community to meet substantive obligations imposed by new legislation and regulations, such as for one-off investments and adjusting business operations. When there is a legal (information) obligation to third parties, which is directly aimed at achieving a substantive goal, there is a substantive obligation. The costs involved in complying with this obligation are then included in the substantive compliance costs.
The guidelines do not entail any administrative burden, because there are no statutory information obligations vis-à-vis the government. However, (information) obligations are introduced that apply to citizens. That is why the bill does lead to substantive compliance costs. The substantive compliance costs are described below for each directive.
5.1.1 Selling Goods Directive
In its Impact Assessment, the European Commission provides a calculation of the costs that companies would have to incur once to adjust their business operations if there were full harmonization (the so-called 'implementation costs'). The Commission estimates these costs at an average of € 6,800 per company. However, the Sales of Goods Directive does not assume full harmonization, which means that the adjustment costs will be lower than the amount originally estimated by the European Commission. The adaptation costs for companies consist of, among other things, adapting websites, updating the general terms and conditions and developing new (versions of) information documents. The latter may include posters and/or signs hanging in the shop, consumer agreements, vouchers and the like.
The main obligation under the Sales Goods Directive that leads to compliance costs is the obligation for sellers to provide updates (see section 3.2.1). Entrepreneurs will have to incur one-off costs for drawing up policies and procedures with regard to the update obligation. In addition, sellers must provide consumers with structural information about this obligation. In practice, the entrepreneur may make use of the exception clause to explicitly inform the consumer when purchasing a product that he cannot expect any updates. The consumer must give his explicit consent, the entrepreneur actually does not want to be bound by the update obligation. Both aspects lead to changes in business operations. In the first place, the documentation used must be adjusted once as the occasion arises. Furthermore, registering the explicit consent will lead to additional administration for the entrepreneur, which entails compliance costs. It is not possible to estimate these costs (expressed in euros) because there is no data available on the number (in bandwidth of) active traders in the Netherlands in goods with digital elements, digital content and digital services. Both aspects lead to changes in business operations. In the first place, the documentation used must be adjusted once as the occasion arises. Furthermore, registering the explicit consent will lead to additional administration for the entrepreneur, which entails compliance costs. It is not possible to estimate these costs (expressed in euros) because there is no data available on the number (in bandwidth of) active traders in the Netherlands in goods with digital elements, digital content and digital services. Both aspects lead to changes in business operations. In the first place, the documentation used must be adjusted once as the occasion arises. Furthermore, registering the explicit consent will lead to additional administration for the entrepreneur, which entails compliance costs. It is not possible to estimate these costs (expressed in euros) because there is no data available on the number (in bandwidth of) active traders in the Netherlands in goods with digital elements, digital content and digital services. Furthermore, registering the explicit consent will lead to additional administration for the entrepreneur, which entails compliance costs. It is not possible to estimate these costs (expressed in euros) because there is no data available on the number (in bandwidth of) active traders in the Netherlands in goods with digital elements, digital content and digital services. Furthermore, registering the explicit consent will lead to additional administration for the entrepreneur, which entails compliance costs. It is not possible to estimate these costs (expressed in euros) because there is no data available on the number (in bandwidth of) active traders in the Netherlands in goods with digital elements, digital content and digital services.