If you don’t know, sellers can rip you off: Here are the non-returnable items that can be returned | Business

Competitors also complain

Karolina Jonaitienė, the chief lawyer of the Aliant law firm, observes that it is not uncommon for smaller or start-up businesses to break the law regarding the return period or guarantee, perhaps without even knowing it, or perhaps trying to deliberately circumvent the law and hoping that no one will notice.

“It used to be that even in big, long-established stores, I would take, say, shoes, and they would tell me that the warranty had expired because 2 months had passed. Although according to the law it is 2 years. But I can already see that traders no longer write such invented and invalid rules. The situation with large networks is not bad now, but if we were to talk regarding smaller networks, such cases do still occur”, – 15min said K. Jonaitiene.

According to her, she often sees such cases in small clothing stores, boutiques, and new, small electronics stores.

Photo by Brigita Strazdė/Karolina Jonaitienė

According to her, those small businesses do not even think that their actions may later mean large legal costs, because, for example, the State Consumer Rights Protection Service (VVTAT) has the right to conduct an inspection at any time. If the service finds violations, it can impose significant monetary fines.

“But there are those who don’t know the laws, and there are those who know the laws, but don’t know how big the fines are, what the consequences might be, and that’s why they’re not afraid to apply their illegal rules.” And then it happens that competitors or clients sue them,” the lawyer mentioned.

However, she thinks that sometimes companies take such risks in an attempt to protect their business and goods, as there are more and more cases where, say, clothes are purchased only for photo shoots and then returned.

“I have seen with my own eyes such photo shoots and the fact that followingwards models with the same clothes, from which the tags have not been removed, sit in cafes and eat. Later, they return the same clothes, even though they have obviously worn them,” said the interviewer.