Article 7 Misleading omissions
A commercial practice shall be regarded as misleading if, in its factual context, taking account of all its features and circumstances and the limitations of the communication medium, it omits material information that the average consumer needs, according to the context, to take an informed transactional decision and thereby causes or is likely to cause the average consumer to take a transactional decision that they would not have taken otherwise.
A commercial practice shall also be regarded as a misleading omission when, taking account of the matters described in paragraph 1, a trader hides or provides in an unclear, unintelligible, ambiguous or untimely manner material information referred to in that paragraph or fails to identify the commercial intent of the commercial practice if not already apparent from the context, and where, in either case, this causes or is likely to cause the average consumer to take a transactional decision that they would not have taken otherwise.
Where the medium used to communicate the commercial practice imposes limitations of space or time, these limitations and any measures taken by the trader to make the information available to consumers by other means shall be taken into account in deciding whether information has been omitted.
In the case of an invitation to purchase, the following information shall be regarded as material, if not already apparent from the context:
the geographical address and the identity of the trader, such as the trader’s trading name and, where applicable, the geographical address and the identity of the other trader on whose behalf the trader is acting;
the price inclusive of taxes, or where the nature of the product means that the price cannot reasonably be calculated in advance, the manner in which the price is calculated, as well as, where appropriate, all additional freight, delivery or postal charges or, where these charges cannot reasonably be calculated in advance, the fact that such additional charges may be payable;
the arrangements for payment, delivery and performance, if they depart from the requirements of professional diligence;
for products and transactions involving a right of withdrawal or cancellation, the existence of such a right;
for products offered on online marketplaces, whether the third party offering the products is a trader or not, on the basis of the declaration of that third party to the provider of the online marketplace.
By way of derogation from point (b) of this paragraph, where traders do not engage in the direct sale of products to consumers, including in the context of influencer marketing, they shall not be required to provide their geographical address in an invitation to purchase.
When providing consumers with the possibility to search for products offered by different traders or by consumers on the basis of a query in the form of a keyword, phrase or other input, irrespective of where transactions are ultimately concluded, general information made available in a specific section of the online interface that is directly and easily accessible from the page where the query results are presented, on the main parameters determining the ranking of products presented to the consumer as a result of the search query and the relative importance of those parameters, as opposed to other parameters, shall be regarded as material. This paragraph does not apply to providers of online search engines as defined in Article 2, point (6), of Regulation (EU) 2019/1150.
Information requirements established by Union law in relation to commercial communication including advertising or marketing shall be regarded as material.
Where a trader provides access to consumer reviews of products, information about whether and how the trader ensures that the published reviews originate from consumers who have actually used or purchased the product shall be regarded as material.
Where a trader provides a service which compares products and provides the consumer with information on environmental or social characteristics or on circularity aspects, including durability, reparability or recyclability, of the products or suppliers of those products, information about the method of comparison, the products which are the object of comparison and the suppliers of those products, as well as the measures in place to keep that information up to date, shall be regarded as material information.