Some Legal Issues to Consider when selling Knitting and Crafts Online

This post is a short discussion about the sort of things you might need to consider when selling your knitting online.

First of all, I would like to write that legal issues vary from country to country, and I am not a lawyer and what is written here is not legal advice.

I just want to state that there are legal issues.

In the UK, for example, selling something that you have made yourself, with the purpose of selling, is a business. You need to register as self employed and submit annual tax returns.

There are also multiple online selling laws. Data protection is a big one, if selling to Europe you need to display a data protection policy on any website where you sell your goods. I have one on my Etsy account, I wrote it myself and so far no problems. I will write more details about that soon.

The main thing with data protection is, don't pass on anyone's details to anyone else without their express written consent. For example, don't pass on an email address to another business, so that the other business could offer them their services. It's illegal. Also, you can't randomly email or mail your customers with special offers, unless they have signed up for this. Again, it's illegal. You can only use data for the actual purpose for which you received it. Such as an address to post the goods to. You can't use this address for anything else.

There are in some places laws about displaying  the right to cancelling an order. Again, I will expand on this later. It is definitely worth at least a google search, so that you are aware of the existence of such things. In some countries, and for some goods, including knitted wares (textiles and accessories),  a customer has a right to cancel an order and return goods within two weeks and you have to advise them of this right.

Of course you also have to accept the return faulty goods, or goods not sold as described.

In some countries you have to display the name and address of your business wherever you are selling goods, that's related to consumer protection law.

That is enough for now. There are a lot of laws. I would recommend seeking legal advice, or a business start up advisor of you want to really ensure that you are properly following the law.

I went to see a free of charge business advisor right at the beginning of my venture. He didn't however, tell me any of what I have written here, I have just learnt it along the way, and if you sign up to for example Etsy, they are pretty good at letting you know what you need to do and when requirements change.

Don't worry too much, there is always someone to help, and there is a lot of advice out there. I just wanted to put it out there that it isn't just a matter of knitting a pile of socks and selling them on a website.