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Comment by WarmWash | Hacker News Reader

One of the major reasons US consumers shop with megacorp over small business is because of the no hassle returns.

Exactly my point. In Germany I can order from the smallest of webshops without even reading their return policy, because I am guaranteed favourable terms by law.

In the US, if the remote merchant doesn't accept a return (or is non responsive), a credit card chargeback would be in order.

The customer almost always wins those. And the merchant always has to pay a fee for the chargeback, even when they win, so they're incentivized to avoid them.

The merchant agreement isn't as effective as a well enforced law, but it's pretty close.

This isn't without downsides though: As somebody with a niche technical hobby, it is hard for me to order from many suppliers because they understandably don't want to deal with consumer protection laws and thus exclude B2C transactions outright ("Verkauf nur an Gewerbetreibende").

I would be fine with waiving my right to returns but this is not possible on purpose, so my only options are to shop somewhere else (often not possible) or found a company (not possible because it would be Liebhaberei - "Running a company without intent to make profits").

B2B company in the US rarely sell to consumers either and their return policy is very different. Not necessary "no return", but only if damaged, not per spec etc. Since we don't have consumer protection laws here I guess it's based on different company structure and expected revenue. In your case it may also be VAT implications (similar problem here with sales tax).

So the person that wants to sell that ultra-unique item that isn't produced by mega-corp, and the person that wants to buy that ultra-unique item despite unfavorable return policies never gets their needs met.

Why would that be the case? Maybe you’re thinking of customised or commissioned items, which are an exception explicitly called out in the law and require a defect by the seller to return (so you can’t just return eg a painting made for you on a whim, but if it arrives damaged, you can)

Thats good to know, but I'm talking about that person that's trying to start a business, without incurring massive liability, doing small run 3d print jobs, some early run smart home device, some small one person SaaS, crochet niche hobby things, etc...

The type of thing that might go from side gig to actual long running business that could end up employing a bunch of people.

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