In this legal bulletin we shall examine more closely cases where the law requires a trader to provide specific confirmation to a consumer within the contracting process (within the process of concluding a contract) or after the conclusion of this process. The existence of some of these obligations may logically also affect the functionality of the software solution used by the trader for operating an internet shop (in the sense of the need to automate some of these steps).

The first of these situations arises even before the actual conclusion of the contract. Specifically, the provision of Section 1827(1) of the Civil Code provides that “where a consumer places an order by means of distance communication, the trader is obliged to confirm its receipt without delay by means of distance communication; this does not apply to the conclusion of a contract exclusively by exchange of electronic mail or similar individual communication.” Here, therefore, this concerns confirmation by the trader regarding the delivery of the consumer’s order. This confirmation must be strictly distinguished from acceptance of the order thus delivered. It is by acceptance of the order that a purchase contract arises, on the basis of which the trader is obliged to sell the goods to the consumer. For these reasons, it is advisable to pay attention to the wording of such confirmation of receipt of the order (some traders unfortunately do not have unambiguous wording in practice), as otherwise it may suggest acceptance.

A further case where the law requires a trader to provide specific confirmation is the provision of Section 1824a(1) of the Civil Code. This provides that “the trader shall issue to the consumer confirmation of the concluded contract in textual form within a reasonable time after its conclusion, but no later than at the moment of delivery of the goods or before commencing to provide the service.” This is followed by the provision of Section 1827(2) of the Civil Code: “Where a contract is concluded using electronic means, the trader shall provide to the consumer in textual form, in addition to the wording of the contract, also the wording of the general terms and conditions.” This means that after conclusion of the contract the trader is obliged to send to the consumer in textual form confirmation of the conclusion of the contract, including the content of the terms and conditions. This obligation thus cannot be fulfilled merely by providing a hypertext link leading to the trader’s website etc., as what is meant by textual form is defined by law: “Textual form is preserved where the data are provided on paper or on another durable medium which enables the addressee to retain the data intended for him in such a way that they can be used for a period appropriate to their purpose and which enables their unchanged reproduction.”

Sending of confirmation is also mandatory in the case where the consumer withdraws from the purchase contract without stating a reason, if the consumer does so by means of an on-line form published by the trader (we note that enabling this manner of withdrawal from the contract is not an obligation of the trader). Specifically, this situation is regulated in the provision of Section 1830(2) of the Civil Code, as follows: “Where the trader enables the consumer to withdraw by completing and sending a model form for withdrawal from the contract on the internet website, he shall confirm to the consumer without undue delay in textual form its receipt.”

In conclusion, we prefer to mention that the above is not a complete list of all cases where a trader is obliged to provide some confirmation to a consumer. Further confirmation must be issued, for example, within complaint proceedings etc.

Josef Aujezdský

This text was originally prepared by the law firm Mašek, Kočí, Aujezdský in cooperation with the Association for Electronic Commerce (APEK) as legal bulletin No. 08/2023 intended for members of this association.

This text was translated from Czech to English using an AI translator.