chrome webstore developer dashboard - am I a trader or non-trader?

Question

I've just logged into my chrome webstore developers dashboard. I'm met with a new popup asking me to select an option:

Action required

Declare if your publisher account is considered a trader or non-trader with respect to European Economic Area (EEA) consumer protection laws. Learn more about why we ask this

This is a trader account: the publisher is acting for professional purposes (i.e. for purposes relating to its trade, business, craft or profession) in relation to contracts made on this marketplace.

This is a non-trader account: the publisher is acting for purposes which are outside its trade, business, craft or profession in relation to contracts made to this marketplace.

The help doc: https://developer.chrome.com/docs/webstore/trader-disclosure/ is fairly clear in terms of right now, if I'm a trader or non-trader I know what to do.

However I'm not sure what to choose. I'm a casual developer and I create plugins purely for a hobby. However, if any of them became super popular, went viral etc, I might consider adding a paid premium option, subscriptions or possibly monetise it in some way.

What option should I choose? Are there any long term implications, and can I change these options at a later date?

Answer 1

Not a lawyer here. If you select the trader option you will be prompted for your business name, address, etc. So it seams that trader is a broad term for a business entity.

You can still sell products and services as a private person. But with new EU law in place, customers will be informed that they might not expect the same level of consumer rights protection.

This also matches with the wording in the European Commision press release:

Answer 2

JetBrains has a good set of examples for determining trader / non-trader status for their Marketplace.

Examples

If you are a natural person acting outside your business (not an entrepreneur) and you offer plugins on JetBrains Marketplace for free, you may be qualified as a non-trader.

If you are a natural person (software developer) working for a company, but you develop plugins in your free time as a hobby and offer them for free and provide means for users to support your development on a voluntary basis (voluntary financial contribution), you may be qualified as a non-trader.

If you are a for-profit legal entity, regardless of whether you are a private or publicly held entity, you would be directly qualified as a trader.

If you are a natural person acting for professional purposes (relating to your trade, business, craft, or profession), you are a trader, and it is immaterial whether you offer some or all of your plugins for free.

If you create a plugin in cooperation with other individuals, you make the declaration as an individual vendor, i.e. the person uploading the plugin is the one making the declaration.