E-commerce Sector
Terms and conditions, marketing consents, influencer agreements. Ready for any scale and any sales channel.
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We know your business model
D2C store, marketplace, omnichannel, subscription. Each of these models raises different legal questions. A lawyer who doesn't know the difference will slow you down, not speed you up.
You sell directly to consumers. The store's terms and conditions, privacy policy, cookie policy, and complaint handling are the foundation that either builds trust or destroys it. Documents written so the consumer understands them. And so that UOKiK has no questions about them.
You run a platform that connects sellers with buyers and assume that, since you don't sell products yourself, you have fewer obligations than a classic online store? Unfortunately, you're mistaken. In practice, the liability of marketplaces can be even broader than that of standard e-commerce. You must not only ensure the platform complies with consumer regulations, including transparent labeling of reviews and proper documentation, but also meet the obligations arising from the DSA. This includes, among other things, responsibility for content published and stored on your platform.
You sell online and offline at the same time. Every channel collects data, every channel runs marketing. The privacy policy, marketing consents, and remarketing must work consistently across the entire ecosystem. One system of documents for all channels. With no conflicting terms and conditions.
The subscription model raises specific questions: renewal terms, cancellation rules, communication with the subscriber. A consumer who doesn't understand how the subscription works files a complaint. Subscription terms and conditions that the consumer understands before clicking "Buy."
Problems we know
The store's terms and conditions are the first document an unhappy customer reads, and the first document UOKiK checks. Poorly written terms generate complaints, disputes, and fines. Terms that a consumer understands on first reading minimize conflict situations.
For email marketing, remarketing, and telemarketing, each channel requires separate consent collected in the right way. A single poorly constructed consent blocks an entire marketing channel. You need a consent architecture that lets your marketing run without interruption.
Working with an influencer without a proper agreement carries risk on both sides: no transfer of rights to the content, no rules for labeling advertising, no protection against publication after the collaboration ends. Influencer agreements that work as fast as the campaign they support.
The way consumer reviews are collected, moderated, and presented is subject to strict legal regulation (the Act on Counteracting Unfair Market Practices, the DSA). Fake reviews, failure to verify reviews, hiding negative comments, or not labeling sponsored reviews can be considered practices that infringe the collective interests of consumers and result in heavy fines imposed by UOKiK.
The Omnibus Directive changed the rules for presenting price reductions. A struck-through price that does not reflect the actual price history is a violation that UOKiK actively pursues. We'll help you create promotion terms and a discount presentation mechanism compliant with the Act on Informing About the Prices of Goods and Services.
Product photos, descriptions, graphics, and the store name are all elements that can be copied by competitors. Without proper IP protection, once your store succeeds, imitators operate with impunity. An IP protection strategy that works before the imitators appear.
Why dotlaw
We're your partner. We don't describe legal risk in the abstract and we don't leave you with "on the one hand... on the other hand." We end every matter with a clear recommendation. Our legal solutions are meant to grow your business.
We support e-commerce companies in a model that fits their growth stage: from project-based support for a specific agreement, through ongoing subscription service, to fractional in-house that works like an internal legal department. A form of cooperation tailored to you.
We've supported our services with GenAI from the very start. In line with the European guidelines we co-author, we shift efficiency into sixth gear. This lets us work effectively even on the most complex matters.
We design agreements, manuals, and guidelines so that your team can read and understand them without any trouble. Legal documents that can't be understood will never be effective.
How we start
No briefs, no forms. You tell us what you do and what hurts. We tell you straight whether and how we can help.
Whatever the scale, within 48 hours you'll know how we'll define the scope of work, how we'll approach the problem, and when you'll get a quote. No dragging it out. No "we'll get back to you."
One week from the signing date. Our lawyers are fully onboarded into your business and we start working. There's no warm-up period.
FAQ
The set of information that terms and conditions must provide to consumers is strictly regulated by the Consumer Rights Act. Among other things, you must inform your customers about the seller's details, the order and payment process, delivery terms, the right to withdraw within 14 days, the complaint procedure, and out-of-court dispute resolution methods. Failing to provide the information required by law may result in your store being fined by UOKiK (the Polish Office of Competition and Consumer Protection).
A single "I agree to everything" checkbox does not meet the requirements of the GDPR or the Electronic Communications Law. Marketing consents must be specific and separated, meaning collected individually for each communication channel, such as email marketing or telemarketing. The same rules apply to cookies. Users should be able to give separate consent for each cookie category, in particular analytical and marketing cookies. Bundling all consents into a single checkbox may be considered a breach of the regulations.
Since 2023, an online store must display the lowest price of a product from the previous 30 days next to every discount. A struck-through price that does not reflect the actual price history is a violation that UOKiK actively pursues. This applies to every promotion, sale, and discount code.
A good influencer agreement must include: a precise description of the content to be created, publication deadlines, rules for labeling content as advertising in line with UOKiK recommendations, the transfer of copyright to the created materials, a non-compete clause for a defined period, and rules for handling content after the collaboration ends. Without these elements, the influencer can publish whatever they want, whenever they want, and keep the rights to the content.
An online store should clearly state whether and how it verifies that published reviews come from customers who actually bought a given product. The good news is that the regulations do not require the verification of reviews itself, but rather that customers be given accurate information. In practice, this means that if you do not verify reviews, you should honestly inform your customers of this, not only in the terms and conditions but also directly alongside the review content. On the other hand, if you claim that reviews come from customers who actually bought a given product, you should not only inform other customers of this but also apply reasonable verification mechanisms, for example allowing reviews to be added only after purchase.
The most common GDPR violations in e-commerce: collecting marketing consents bundled with other consents, the absence of a data processing agreement with the store platform provider, transferring data to advertising systems outside the EU without a proper legal basis, and the lack of a procedure for handling consumer data access requests.
A privacy policy explains who processes users' personal data, for what purpose, and on what legal basis. A cookie policy explains which cookies are used, what they do, and how they can be managed. An online store needs both documents as well as a cookie banner that actually collects consent rather than merely announcing that cookies exist.
A store name can be protected as a trademark. Registration with the Polish Patent Office or EUIPO grants the exclusive right to use it in trade. Without registration, a competitor can use a similar name and it will be hard to stop them. It is worth registering protection before the store builds recognition, because it is cheaper and faster at that stage.
The Digital Services Act imposes obligations on stores and platforms depending on their size. Every store must have a clear mechanism for reporting illegal content and must respond to reports within a reasonable time. Larger platforms have additional obligations: transparency of recommendation algorithms, reporting to the European Commission, and external audits.
The regulations do not impose such an obligation directly, but the absence of clear promotion rules may be considered a breach of consumer rights and lead to disputes or intervention by UOKiK. The terms of a promotion should specify, among other things, the rules of participation, the duration of the promotion, and the conditions for using the discount.
Ongoing legal support pays off when: you run active influencer marketing with more than a few creators per month, you organize regular promotions and sales, you process marketing data on a scale of more than several tens of thousands of consumers, or you plan to expand into foreign markets. Below that threshold, dedicated project-based support is usually more cost-effective.
You tell us what you're building and what's blocking you. You get a clear answer. Go or No-Go.
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