Produktrückgaben und Preise im Versandhandel: Ein internationaler Vergleich

E-Commerce sales have been constantly rising over the past years. Among the reasons for this trend are advantages such as reduced search costs and low transaction costs for the buyer. A disadvantage of online shopping is that customers cannot inspect the product they buy online. In Germany, customers are entitled to get full refund when withdrawing from any distance selling. Customers can withdraw from a contract within two weeks without any explanation. Many retailers in the USA do not refund the full price to the customer in case of product return and charge restocking fees. A reason for such a restrictive return policy is the reduction of opportunistic product returns. In this paper, the authors compare prices in online-shops for identical products in the USA and Germany. The comparison shows that the alleged consumer protection achieved by a legal prohibition of restocking fees leads to higher average prices for electronic products in Germany.