Every EU online merchant hits the same handful of withdrawal-right questions — usually one angry email at a time. The consumer-side answers are everywhere; the merchant-side answers are scattered across legal blogs. Here they are in one place, in plain language.
The frame: consumers buying online in the EU can withdraw from the purchase within 14 days of receiving the goods, without giving any reason. That part is not negotiable. Almost everything merchants argue about is what happens around it.
Who pays the return shipping?
The customer — but only if you told them beforehand. The EU default is that the consumer bears the direct cost of returning the goods, provided your withdrawal information said so clearly before the purchase. If that notice is missing or buried, the cost falls back on you.
Separate question: should you charge it? Paid returns are a legitimate policy, but treat it as a conversion decision, not a legal one — see our returns playbook for that trade-off.
Do I have to refund the original (outbound) shipping?
Yes — this is the one merchants most often get wrong. On withdrawal you must refund the full purchase price including the outbound shipping the customer paid. The only cap: you owe the cost of your cheapest standard delivery option. If the customer chose express, the difference is theirs to carry.
The customer used the product. Do I still have to refund?
Yes. Customers may handle the goods the way they could in a store — unpack, inspect, try on, try out. You cannot refuse the withdrawal because the box was opened or the product was tested.
What you can do: deduct compensation for diminished value if the handling clearly went beyond store-level testing — worn shoes with street scuffs, a camera with 500 photos on the card, cosmetics half used. Two conditions: the loss of value must be real and attributable to the excess use, and your withdrawal information must have been correct. Deduct proportionally and document why; “it’s used, so 50% off” without reasoning loses every dispute.
No original packaging — can I refuse the return?
No. Missing original packaging doesn’t void the withdrawal right. If the packaging is genuinely part of the product’s value (collector items, sealed-box goods), a documented value deduction may be arguable — refusal is not.
When do I have to pay, and can I wait for the goods?
You must refund within 14 days of the withdrawal declaration, using the same payment method. But you may withhold the refund until the goods are back or the customer proves they shipped them — whichever comes first. Use that right; “refund on first scan of the return label” is the clean, automatable middle ground between paying blind and sitting on refunds.
One more deadline that surprises merchants: the customer has 14 days from declaring withdrawal to actually send the goods back.
Does a wordless return parcel count as a withdrawal?
No. Since 2014, the customer must declare the withdrawal explicitly — an email, the model form, any unambiguous statement. A parcel appearing at your warehouse with no message is not a withdrawal declaration. In practice you’ll usually treat it as one anyway (and should reach out), but in disputes the distinction matters.
Which products are exempt?
The exceptions merchants actually use:
- Custom-made / personalized goods (engraving, made-to-measure)
- Sealed hygiene or health products, once unsealed
- Sealed audio, video or software, once unsealed
- Perishables, and goods inseparably mixed after delivery
- B2B buyers — the statutory withdrawal right protects consumers only
Everything else — including “reduced items”, “opened items”, “items bought on sale” — is covered. Store policies cannot shrink the right, only extend it.
What if my withdrawal information was wrong or missing?
The 14-day clock doesn’t start. The right extends by up to 12 months on top, and your ability to claim value compensation or return-shipping costs evaporates. Of everything on this page, correct information text is the cheapest insurance you can buy.
Withdrawal ≠ defect — don’t mix the tracks
A customer returning a broken product is not exercising the withdrawal right; that’s a legal-guarantee claim, where you carry all shipping costs and different deadlines apply. Routing defects through the returns flow means you either pay costs you didn’t owe or deny rights the customer has — here’s how to handle defect tickets correctly.
Making this run without a lawyer on speed-dial
Almost every rule above is mechanical: check the date received against the declaration date, check the category exemptions, check what was paid including standard shipping, hold until first carrier scan, refund via the original method. That’s exactly the kind of casework that shouldn’t consume human minutes — a system that reads the order, applies these rules and executes the refund and label in your shop handles the standard cases end-to-end, and escalates the genuinely contested ones (value deductions, suspected abuse) to you with the file already assembled. The live demo shows that on a real case from your store.
This article is a practical overview for merchants, not legal advice. For your specific setup — especially withdrawal-information texts — have your policies reviewed by a lawyer.