Product type “digital”

Permalink Product type “digital”

Our response to the challenge of full compliance with the EU Consumer Rights Directive of 13 June 2014 and the EU VAT Regulation of 1 January 2015 was to introduce a dedicated product type for digital products.

Permalink Checkbox for digital products

The checkbox for digital products is found alongside the checkboxes for virtual and downloadable products on the product editing page in the backend (Edit Product → Add Product Data or New Product → Product Data).

Permalink Product attributes

Providers of digital goods must inform their customers about the “key attributes” thereof, and in particular any “restrictions on interoperability and the compatibility of digital content with hardware and software” they are aware of.

In your case, for example, this means you must refer to the programs and versions that your virtual products are (not) compatible and/or to be used with.

The inclusion of key attributes in descriptions of digital products is a prerequisite for compliance with the EU directive. Depending on the varying degrees of interoperability and compatibility exhibited by your digital products, this may necessitate the customization of each individual description. It is with this in mind that we have integrated the new Attributes field into WooCommerce (you can also use the field for other product types).

German Market maximizes your legal security by automatically displaying/incorporating the attributes entered in the field in the following places:

• Below the short product description on the product page
• On checkout pages 1 and 2 and on the “thank you for your order” page (attributes are shown for each individual digital product after the respective short product description)
• In the confirmation email sent to the customer (attributes are again shown for each individual digital product)

Permalink Frontend elements

Selection of the product type “digital” also leads to the display of additional frontend elements required under the terms of the aforementioned EU directive:

• A visual label for digital products and product variants [Digital] is displayed in the cart and on the checkout page .
• A cancellation policy for digital content is displayed on the checkout page insofar as there is at least one digital product in the cart
• A notice on contractual performance prior to the expiry of the cancellation period and the resultant premature expiry of the customer’s right of cancellation is also displayed

Permalink Notice on shipping costs

Digital/virtual products do not always require a notice on shipping costs. The following table shows you how to configure digital/virtual products in order to ensure that a shipping costs notice is (not) displayed: