What a trustmark is worth

Check the register, not the logo

A trustmark logo on a website is a picture. It can be lifted from another site with a right-click. Every serious trustmark therefore maintains a public register of affiliated retailers. The only meaningful check is: look the retailer up in that register, on the trustmark's own site and not through a link on the retailer's site.

If the shop is not listed, it is displaying the logo without entitlement. That is in itself an unfair commercial practice within the meaning of article 6:193c of the Dutch Civil Code, and an independent argument in a file.

The three you meet in the Netherlands

The best-known trustmarks for Dutch retailers are Thuiswinkel Waarborg, WebwinkelKeur and Keurmerk Webshop. They differ in admission requirements and in what they do afterwards. What you want to know for each:

• Is there a dispute scheme and which committee handles it.
• Is there a compliance guarantee, under which the trustmark holder stands behind a decision if the affiliated shop does not comply, and up to what amount.
• What the sanction is for repeated complaints: suspension or expulsion.

The regulations are revised periodically and so are the amounts. Before relying on a guarantee, always check the current regulations on the trustmark's site.

Why a trustmark is leverage for us

To a retailer the trustmark is a marketing investment. It sits in the checkout because it raises conversion. A complaint file with the trustmark holder therefore touches something the retailer does feel, even where a claim of a hundred euros does not.

We therefore report to the trustmark holder as standard as soon as a deadline passes. In a proportion of files, payment follows within days of that report without anything further being needed. That is not a threat but the use of a scheme the retailer voluntarily bound itself to.

What is not a trustmark

• Review platforms. Stars on a review platform say something about satisfaction and nothing about a dispute scheme. There is no guarantee behind it.
• Payment logos. A payment method's logo means you can pay that way, not that anyone is supervising.
• Self-made badges. "100% safe shopping" or "verified retailer" with no register link is a graphic element.
• An SSL padlock. That says the traffic is encrypted, nothing more. Virtually every fake shop has one.

Before ordering: three checks in two minutes

1. Look the shop up in the register of the trustmark whose logo it displays.
2. Look for the company details. Under article 3:15d of the Dutch Civil Code a trader must make its identity and business address findable, and article 6:230m(1) requires contact details before you order. If those are missing, that is a signal.
3. Look at which payment methods are offered. A shop that accepts only advance bank transfer leaves you with no reversal route. See chargeback by payment method.