Online & distance sales

Is it actually a distance contract?

A distance contract is not simply any purchase in which a website, email or telephone appeared somewhere. Broadly, it is a contract concluded between a trader and consumer under an organised distance-sales or service-provision scheme without the parties being physically present together, using one or more means of distance communication up to and including the point at which the contract is made.

This is why the moment of contract formation matters. If you paid online and the binding contract was concluded before you arrived at a shop, later collection does not by itself turn the transaction into an in-store purchase. If you only reserved an item online, inspected it in store and became bound only when you paid at the till, the position can be different.

Work out who your contract is actually with.

Online marketplaces, social-media shops and booking platforms can obscure this. The platform that took you through checkout is not necessarily the trader that sold the goods or service. Look at the order confirmation, invoice, seller identity, payment descriptor and terms.

If the seller was acting for purposes relating to a trade, business, craft or profession, consumer legislation can apply. A genuinely private individual selling their own unwanted property is different. A marketplace’s buyer-protection scheme may still provide a contractual route, but do not assume that every marketplace transaction creates the same statutory rights against the platform itself.

Where the platform is itself the seller, or separately promises a refund or protection scheme, preserve that wording too. You may have more than one contractual or payment route even though only one party is responsible under the underlying sale contract.

Before you pay, the trader must give important information.

For distance contracts, specified information must generally be provided clearly and comprehensibly before you are bound. Depending on the type of contract, this includes the trader’s identity and contact details, the main characteristics of what you are buying, the total price and additional charges, payment and delivery arrangements, complaint-handling information, contract duration or termination conditions, and information about cancellation where a cancellation right exists.

For digital content there are additional information duties about functionality and relevant compatibility or interoperability. For contracts with ongoing obligations, information about duration, minimum commitment and termination can be crucial.

This information is not merely decorative website copy. In many cases the information supplied under the Regulations becomes part of the contractual position and cannot simply be changed after the event without agreement.

Online checkout must make the payment obligation clear.

Where an online order places you under an obligation to pay, the trader must make that consequence clear at the point you place the order. The final ordering step must use wording that unambiguously indicates an obligation to pay. The practical point is simple: a business should not design checkout so that a consumer reasonably thinks they are requesting information or starting a free process when the final click actually commits them to payment.

Optional extras also require real consent. A trader should not rely on pre-ticked boxes or default options to impose additional payments. If an extra was added without the required express consent, challenge that charge separately from the price of the main contract.

Keep the confirmation: “durable medium” matters.

After a distance contract is concluded, the trader must provide confirmation of the contract on a durable medium within the required timeframe. Email is the obvious example because you can retain and reproduce it. A live webpage that the trader can alter later may not provide the same evidential protection.

This becomes important months later when the trader says “our website has always said…” and the current page no longer matches what you saw. Keep the order email, attached terms, invoice, cancellation information and any screenshots made at checkout. If the product description or promised delivery date matters, save that too.

The 14-day cancellation right: what it actually means.

For many distance contracts you can cancel without giving a reason. But “14 days” does not start at the same point for every type of contract.

You can cancel before delivery too. The statutory period is a minimum window; it does not prevent you notifying cancellation earlier once the contract exists.

If the trader did not tell you about cancellation, the period can be much longer.

A trader that was required to give cancellation information cannot normally benefit from keeping you ignorant of the right. If the required information about the right to cancel was not provided, the cancellation period can be extended by up to 12 months. If the trader supplies the missing information during that extended period, a 14-day period then runs from when it is supplied.

This is particularly important where the trader responds “our 14 days expired months ago” but cannot show that you were ever given the statutory cancellation information. Ask for the version of the pre-contract information and confirmation actually supplied to you, not a link to the trader’s current website.

You do not normally need the trader’s special cancellation form.

Cancellation is generally exercised by informing the trader of your decision using a clear statement. The model cancellation form can be used, but it is not normally the only valid route. An email saying clearly that you are cancelling the contract can be enough.

The practical problem is proof. A telephone call may be legally capable of communicating cancellation but can become an evidential argument. Use a method you can retain where possible. Record the date, time, destination address, account/order number and the exact statement sent.

Returning goods is a separate step from cancelling.

After you cancel a goods contract, you normally have a further 14 days to send the goods back. Do not assume that obtaining a returns label is itself cancellation, and do not assume that silently posting an item back is the safest way to communicate cancellation. Make the cancellation explicit and preserve evidence of both the notice and the return.

Use tracked or otherwise provable return methods for valuable goods. Photograph the item and serial number where relevant, record packaging condition and keep the carrier receipt. If the trader supplied a label, keep a copy or screenshot showing the tracking number.

When must the trader actually refund you?

For a cancelled sales contract, the trader must generally make the reimbursement without undue delay and within the statutory timeframe. For goods, the trader can normally withhold the refund until it has received the goods back or you supply evidence that you sent them back, whichever happens first. That is different from a blanket rule saying the business can always wait until its warehouse has inspected and processed the parcel.

For service and digital-content contracts, the refund mechanics differ because there may be no physical goods to return and there may be a lawful amount payable for performance already supplied. Keep cancellation and refund issues separate so the business has to identify exactly why it says money is being retained.

The original standard delivery charge is normally part of the refund.

If you validly cancel a distance sale of goods, reimbursement generally includes the price paid and the cost of the least expensive standard delivery option offered by the trader. If you deliberately chose an enhanced option, for example next-day delivery when ordinary delivery was cheaper: the trader does not normally have to refund the extra premium above its standard delivery charge.

This is why “delivery is never refundable” is too broad. The legal position distinguishes the standard outbound delivery cost from an optional upgrade.

They Said This: “We never refund the original delivery charge”

Who pays the cost of sending unwanted goods back?

For a straightforward change-of-mind cancellation, the consumer can normally be required to bear the direct cost of returning the goods if the trader properly informed them of that liability before the contract was made. If the trader agreed to pay the cost, that agreement matters. Special information rules also apply where goods cannot normally be returned by post.

Do not confuse that with returning faulty goods. Where goods breach the Consumer Rights Act, the statutory remedy must generally be provided without cost to the consumer, and the trader cannot simply transplant its change-of-mind return-postage rule into a fault claim.

They Said This: “You always have to pay return postage”

Opening the packaging does not automatically end the right.

The law allows a consumer to handle goods to establish their nature, characteristics and functioning, broadly reflecting the type of examination that could reasonably take place in a shop. Opening an ordinary box is therefore not a universal switch that destroys the cancellation right.

There are, however, specific statutory exceptions involving certain sealed goods, including specified health or hygiene goods after unsealing and sealed audio, video or computer software after unsealing. The trader must rely on the actual exception, not merely the fact that some packaging was opened.

They Said This: “You opened the packaging, so you lost your online cancellation right”

Using the item can affect the amount refunded, but not in the simplistic way many policies suggest.

A trader can in appropriate cases deduct for diminished value caused by handling beyond what is necessary to establish the nature, characteristics and functioning of the goods. That is a question of actual handling and loss of value, not an automatic restocking fee merely because the item was taken out of its box.

Trying shoes on indoors is different from wearing them outside for days. Switching a television on to examine picture quality is different from using it as your household television for two weeks. If a trader makes a deduction, ask it to explain the actual diminution in value and how the amount was calculated.

They Said This: “You used it, so you cannot return it”

“Custom”, “personalised” and “made to order” are not interchangeable labels.

The Regulations contain an exception for goods made to the consumer’s specifications or clearly personalised. This can cover genuinely bespoke goods made according to an individual choice or specification. But a returns page calling every made-to-order item “custom” does not by itself settle the legal question.

Ask what feature made the item consumer-specific. Engraving a name, producing curtains to measurements, or manufacturing an unusual specification is very different from selecting a standard colour or size from ordinary catalogue options. The exact facts matter, so avoid making the argument solely from the trader’s marketing terminology.

Perishable and hygiene exceptions are narrower than “we cannot resell it”.

Some goods are excluded because they are liable to deteriorate or expire rapidly. There is also an exception for specified sealed goods that are not suitable for return due to health protection or hygiene reasons once unsealed. These are statutory categories, not a general permission for a trader to refuse any return it considers inconvenient to resell.

For example, “hygiene reasons” printed on a website does not automatically make every clothing, bedding, cosmetic or household product non-returnable. Check whether the actual statutory conditions are met and whether the relevant seal was broken.

Other important cancellation exceptions.

Depending on the contract, statutory exceptions can also cover areas such as goods or services whose price depends on financial-market fluctuations, newspapers and periodicals other than subscriptions, certain alcoholic drinks subject to specified conditions, urgent household repairs requested by the consumer, and accommodation, goods transport, vehicle rental, catering or leisure services where the contract provides for a specific date or period of performance.

This is why hotel bookings, concert tickets and date-specific leisure activities cannot safely be analysed using the same “14 days after buying online” rule as an ordinary pair of shoes. If an exception is being relied upon, identify the precise category before deciding the trader is right.

Sale and discounted items do not lose distance cancellation rights merely because they were reduced.

Being in a sale is not itself a statutory exception. If an ordinary product would have attracted the cancellation right at full price, reducing it does not automatically remove that right. The same distinction applies to statutory fault rights: a trader cannot use “sale item” as a blanket way to remove rights, although a defect that was specifically disclosed and accepted before purchase may affect a later complaint about that particular defect.

They Said This: “Sale items bought online are not covered by cooling-off rights”

Services started during the 14 days need a different analysis.

You can ask a trader to begin a service during the cancellation period. That does not automatically mean every right to cancel disappears the moment work begins. Where the statutory requirements are met, you may have to pay a proportionate amount for the service supplied up to cancellation.

If the service is fully performed during the cancellation period, loss of the cancellation right depends on the statutory requirements concerning your express request/consent and acknowledgment. A trader that simply started work immediately without properly dealing with those requirements should not jump straight to “service started, no refund”.

Separately, if the service itself was performed without reasonable care and skill, did not match binding information, was late, incomplete or otherwise breached the Consumer Rights Act, use the service-remedy route as well.

They Said This: “Once we start the service, you can never get a refund”

Digital downloads and streaming have special consent rules.

For digital content supplied without a tangible medium, a trader that wants supply to begin during the 14-day cancellation period must obtain the required express consent to early supply and acknowledgment that the cancellation right will be lost once supply begins. The confirmation of the contract should record this.

If the trader did not obtain the required consent or acknowledgment, it should not simply assert that “downloads are non-refundable”. And if the digital content is faulty, not as described or unfit for purpose, the Consumer Rights Act provides a separate remedy framework regardless of whether the change-of-mind cancellation right has been lost.

Read: Digital content rights and remedies

Click-and-collect: collection does not decide the legal category.

The relevant question is when and where the binding contract was made. If you completed checkout and became bound online, collecting the parcel from a shop, locker or collection point does not normally undo the fact that the contract was formed at a distance. If the website merely reserved stock and you remained free to walk away until you paid in store, that can be different.

Preserve the wording around “order”, “reservation”, “payment” and “contract acceptance”. Traders sometimes use click-and-collect as though the word “collect” automatically means “shop purchase”; it does not.

Marketplaces, do not let the platform/seller distinction derail the claim.

Start with the seller identity shown at the point of sale. If the seller was a business trader, the usual consumer framework may apply to that trader. If the seller was genuinely private, many trader-to-consumer statutory rights will not apply in the same way.

Then look separately at what the marketplace promised. A platform may operate buyer protection, payment protection, returns procedures or guarantees that give you an additional contractual process. That process can be useful, but it should not be mistaken for the complete statement of statutory rights against a business seller.

If the marketplace refuses because its internal deadline has expired, ask whether you are asserting the platform guarantee, statutory rights against the seller, or a card/payment remedy. These are different routes with different time limits.

Buying from an overseas seller can make enforcement harder, not necessarily make rights disappear.

Cross-border consumer contracts can involve additional questions about governing law, where the trader directs its activities, jurisdiction and practical enforcement. A UK-facing website, sterling pricing or delivery to the UK may be relevant facts, but the answer is not simply “UK law always applies” or “foreign seller means no UK rights”.

Preserve evidence showing how the trader marketed to you, its registered address, the checkout currency, delivery destination and governing-law terms. If direct enforcement becomes difficult, marketplace protection, card chargeback or Section 75 may become particularly important where their requirements are satisfied.

If the goods are faulty, stop arguing about the trader’s returns policy.

The Consumer Contracts Regulations create a cancellation route for many distance purchases even where nothing is wrong. The Consumer Rights Act creates separate rights where goods are not of satisfactory quality, not fit for purpose or not as described. These routes can overlap, but they should not be confused.

If a laptop arrives faulty on day 20, the trader should not answer merely “our online returns window is 14 days”. The question is then whether you are using the Consumer Rights Act short-term right to reject or another statutory remedy. Likewise, a retailer cannot normally send you to the manufacturer as a substitute for its own obligations as seller.

They Said This: “It is outside our 14/28/30-day returns window”

They Said This: “You need to contact the manufacturer, not us”

If the order never arrived, cancellation law is not the whole answer.

Delivery disputes engage separate rules about when the trader must deliver and when risk passes. Tracking that says “delivered”, a photograph at a doorway or a courier investigation does not automatically resolve whether the trader discharged its contractual obligation.

If your real problem is non-delivery, an unauthorised safe place, wrong address, missing items or late delivery, use the Delivery Problems guide rather than trying to force everything through the 14-day cancellation framework.

Read: Delivery problems

Ancillary contracts can fall with the main cancellation.

An ancillary contract is an additional contract related to the main distance contract and supplied by the trader or a third party under an arrangement with the trader, for example, some add-on cover or associated service. Where the main contract is validly cancelled under the Regulations, an ancillary contract can be automatically terminated as well, subject to the statutory framework.

If an add-on continues billing after the main purchase has been cancelled, identify whether it was truly ancillary or a separate independently arranged contract. Keep the original checkout showing how it was bundled.

Common retailer refusals, and what to check before accepting them.

Build evidence around the transaction as it existed at the time.

Online pages change. Accounts are closed. Product listings disappear. A good evidence pack fixes the transaction in time.

If the trader relies on information supposedly shown before purchase, ask it to identify the exact version that applied to your order. A current terms page is not necessarily evidence of what you agreed months earlier.

Use wording that identifies the legal route.

If the trader still refuses, choose the escalation route that matches the dispute.

Start with a focused written complaint to the trader. Set out the transaction, the route you rely on, the dates, the remedy and the evidence. Do not send a long history without identifying what legal or contractual point the trader must answer.

If payment was made by card, chargeback may be available under card-scheme rules in appropriate cases. If the statutory conditions for Section 75 are met, a credit-card creditor can have connected liability for breach of contract or misrepresentation. Those payment routes are separate from the underlying cancellation or Consumer Rights Act claim.

Where the trader participates in ADR, that may provide another route. Citizens Advice can give consumer advice and pass appropriate intelligence to Trading Standards in England and Wales. Court action may be available where a civil claim remains unresolved.