E-Commerce and Consumer Law: UK Rights, Rules and Remedies

At a glance

• Cooling-off period: 14 days from the day goods come into your physical possession (sales contracts), or 14 days from the day the contract is made (services and digital content not on a tangible medium) — Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 30.
• Main exceptions to cancellation: personalised or made-to-order goods, goods that deteriorate or expire rapidly, and public auctions are excluded outright; sealed hygiene-sensitive goods, sealed audio/video/software, and downloaded digital content lose the right once unsealed or started with your consent — regulation 28.
• Return costs: you pay the cost of returning goods you simply don't want, unless the trader agreed to cover it or didn't tell you about the cost beforehand — regulation 35. Faulty-goods returns are always at the trader's expense.
• Faulty goods, digital content or services: must be of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose and as described — Consumer Rights Act 2015, ss.9–11, 34–36 and 49. Remedies run in order: a 30-day short-term right to reject, then repair or replacement, then price reduction or a final right to reject.
• Lost or damaged parcels: the trader carries the risk until goods reach your physical possession — Consumer Rights Act 2015, s.29 — so a missing delivery is the seller's problem to fix, not yours.
• Pre-contract information: online traders must give clear identity, pricing and cancellation information before you buy — Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002 and Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, Schedule 2.
• DMCCA 2024: the CMA has had direct fining powers for unfair trading, and a ban on fake or concealed paid reviews, since 6 April 2025. The Act's new subscription-contract rules are a separate, later part of the Act and were not yet in force at the time of writing.

What counts as an e-commerce sale, and who is protected

UK e-commerce law is not one statute — it is a set of overlapping rules covering pre-contract information, cancellation, product quality and data protection, built around the idea that someone buying online cannot inspect the goods, cannot always verify who they are dealing with, and is usually handing over personal data as part of the purchase.

These rules apply to almost any business selling to consumers through a website, app, marketplace listing or social media shop, whether the trader is based in the UK or overseas but targeting UK customers. A "consumer" in this context is an individual acting wholly or mainly outside their trade, business, craft or profession — buying stock for your shop does not count, but buying a laptop for personal use does, even from the same website.

Business-to-business sales fall outside most of these consumer protections, though ordinary contract law still applies. Working out which category a transaction falls into is usually the first question worth asking, because it decides which of the rules below actually apply.

Before you buy: what an online trader has to tell you

Two pieces of legislation set the pre-contract information rules for online sellers.

The Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002 require anyone providing an "information society service" (in practice, any online seller) to make certain information easily, directly and permanently accessible: the trader's name, their geographic address, contact details including an email address, any trade register entry and registration number, and details of any regulator if the trader's activity requires authorisation. Prices referred to online must be shown clearly, stating whether tax and delivery are included.

The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 go further for consumer sales specifically. Before the contract is concluded, the trader must give the consumer the main characteristics of the goods, digital content or service, the total price (including all taxes and, where they cannot be calculated in advance, how they will be worked out), delivery arrangements and costs, the trader's complaint-handling policy, and — critically — the existence, conditions and procedure for exercising the right to cancel, including who bears the cost of returning goods.

If a trader fails to give the required cancellation information, the consequence is significant: the cancellation period does not begin to run until that information is provided, subject to a longstanding maximum extension. Getting this wrong is a common and costly mistake for smaller online sellers who copy a template terms-and-conditions page without checking it matches what they actually sell.

The 14-day cooling-off period: your right to cancel

For most contracts concluded at a distance — meaning no face-to-face contact between trader and consumer at the point of sale — the consumer has a statutory right to cancel without giving a reason.

How long you have. Under regulation 30 of the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, the cancellation period ends 14 days after the goods come into your physical possession (for a sales contract), or 14 days after the contract is entered into (for a service contract, or digital content not supplied on a tangible medium such as a CD or memory stick). Where an order is delivered in instalments, the clock runs from the last delivery.

What is excluded. Regulation 28 removes certain contracts from the right to cancel altogether, including goods made to the consumer's specification or clearly personalised, goods liable to deteriorate or expire rapidly, and contracts concluded at a public auction. Separately, the right is lost part-way through in three situations: sealed goods that are not suitable for return for health protection or hygiene reasons, once unsealed after delivery; sealed audio or video recordings or sealed computer software, once unsealed; and goods that become inseparably mixed with other items after delivery.

Digital content is treated differently again. Under regulation 37, a trader must not begin supplying digital content that isn't on a tangible medium before the cancellation period ends, unless the consumer has given express consent and acknowledged that doing so means losing the right to cancel. Once supply begins on that basis, the right to cancel that contract is gone — this is why "I clicked download, then changed my mind" rarely succeeds for software, ebooks or streaming purchases.

Getting your money back. Once you validly cancel, regulation 34 requires the trader to reimburse all payments, including standard delivery cost (though not the extra cost of a premium delivery option you chose over the trader's cheapest option), without undue delay and in any event within 14 days of receiving the goods back or receiving evidence you've sent them. Regulation 35 puts the cost of returning the goods on you, the consumer, unless the trader agreed to cover it or failed to tell you beforehand that you would bear it — in which case the contract is treated as if the trader agreed to pay.

When something you bought falls short: your remedies

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 sets minimum standards for goods, digital content and services sold to consumers, and a clear order in which remedies become available.

Goods must be of satisfactory quality, fit for any particular purpose you made known to the seller, and match their description (sections 9–11). If they don't:

• Within 30 days of taking possession, you have a short-term right to reject the goods for a full refund (section 22) — you don't need to accept a repair first.
• After 30 days, or if you choose to give the trader a chance to fix things, your remedy is to require repair or replacement (section 23), which the trader must carry out within a reasonable time, without significant inconvenience, and at no cost to you.
• If a repair or replacement doesn't fix the problem, or isn't possible, or takes too long, you can move to a price reduction or a final right to reject (section 24) — but not both.

Digital content — apps, downloads, streamed content, software — is held to the same satisfactory quality, fitness for purpose and description standards under sections 34 to 36, with remedies of repair or replacement, then price reduction, set out in sections 42 to 47.

Services, such as installation, delivery-and-assembly, or a subscription service, must be performed with reasonable care and skill, within a reasonable time if no time was agreed, and for a reasonable price if none was agreed (sections 49, 51 and 52). If a service falls short, the primary remedy is to require the trader to redo the service; if that isn't possible or isn't done properly, you can claim a price reduction.

Who's responsible if a parcel is lost, damaged, or never arrives

Under section 29 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015, goods remain at the trader's risk until they come into your physical possession, or the physical possession of someone you've named to receive them. Practically, this means a parcel that is lost, stolen from a doorstep, or damaged in transit before you receive it is the trader's responsibility to put right — by resending the item or refunding you — not something you are expected to resolve directly with the courier.

The one narrow exception is where you independently arrange your own carrier, one the trader did not offer you as a delivery option. In that situation, risk passes to you once the goods are handed to your chosen carrier. For the overwhelming majority of online orders, where you select from delivery options the trader offers, this exception won't apply.

Worked examples

A faulty item found after five weeks. Priya buys a blender online. It stops working in week seven. Because more than 30 days have passed since delivery, her short-term right to reject under section 22 has expired. Her remedy is to ask the trader to repair or replace it under section 23. If the replacement blender also fails, she can then claim a price reduction or exercise the final right to reject under section 24.

A software download that started immediately. Tom buys a licence key for design software, ticking a box confirming he understands that downloading immediately means losing his right to cancel. He downloads it, then changes his mind an hour later. Because supply began with his express consent and acknowledgement under regulation 37, his right to cancel that contract no longer applies — the trader has no obligation to refund him for a simple change of mind.

An overseas seller and a card payment. Aisha orders a £220 item from an overseas website that markets heavily to UK shoppers on social media. The item never arrives and the seller stops responding. Because she paid by credit card and the price exceeds £100, she can bring a claim against her card provider under section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, which makes the card provider jointly liable with the seller. Had she paid by debit card, she would instead rely on her bank's voluntary chargeback scheme, which is not a legal right but is often effective for non-delivery.

New consumer protection powers: the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024

The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCCA) is being brought into force in stages, and it matters which stage applies before you rely on it.

In force since 6 April 2025: the Competition and Markets Authority gained direct powers to investigate and impose fines for breaches of consumer protection law without first taking a business to court, with penalties of up to 10% of global annual turnover for the most serious breaches. From the same date, new banned practices took effect, including posting or commissioning fake consumer reviews, and hiding a paid or incentivised relationship behind an apparently independent review.

Not yet in force at the time of writing: the Act's dedicated subscription-contract regime — new pre-contract information duties, mandatory reminder notices before a subscription renews, and a simpler exit mechanism for consumers — sits in a later part of the Act and has been repeatedly delayed, with commencement expected around spring 2027. If you are dealing with a subscription cancellation dispute today, the position is still governed by the trader's own terms, general contract law, and (for sales concluded at a distance) the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 cancellation rules described above — not the DMCCA's subscription provisions, which are not yet law in practice. Always check GOV.UK or legislation.gov.uk for the current commencement position before assuming otherwise, as this is an active area of change.

If you run an online shop: what the law expects of you

If you are the trader rather than the buyer, the obligations above translate into practical requirements: display your business identity and contact details prominently and permanently; state prices clearly, including tax and delivery; give complete, accurate pre-contract information, especially about cancellation rights, before the order is placed; process valid cancellations and refunds within the statutory timescales; and make sure any digital content consent-and-acknowledgement step is genuinely presented, not buried in small print.

If your business collects customer data — names, addresses, payment details, browsing behaviour — you also have obligations under the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, covering having a lawful basis for processing, giving clear privacy information, keeping data secure, and handling subject access requests. And since 6 April 2025, any use of customer reviews needs a visible, genuine policy against fake or incentivised reviews — the CMA has been actively contacting businesses it judges non-compliant.

What to do if something goes wrong

1. Identify what kind of problem you have. A change of mind is governed by the 14-day cancellation right and its exceptions; a fault or mismatch with the description is governed by the Consumer Rights Act 2015 remedy hierarchy; non-delivery is a passing-of-risk issue for the trader to resolve.
2. Contact the trader first, in writing. Set out what went wrong, what remedy you are asking for, and reference the specific right you're relying on (short-term right to reject, repair/replacement, cancellation under the 2013 Regulations).
3. Keep a paper trail. Order confirmations, delivery information, and the trader's returns policy as it appeared at the time of purchase are all useful if the trader disputes your account.
4. Consider your payment method. For unresolved credit card disputes over £100, a section 75 claim under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 may be quicker than pursuing the trader directly. For our detailed guide on the underlying law, see Consumer Credit Act: Your Rights When Borrowing Money.
5. Escalate to an approved alternative dispute resolution scheme if the trader belongs to one, or to the small claims track of the county court for lower-value disputes that can't be resolved directly. See our guide to Alternative Dispute Resolution for UK Consumers.
6. Report suspected scams separately from an ordinary consumer dispute — if a seller has simply disappeared with your money rather than supplied faulty goods, see our guide on Avoiding Scams and Fraud.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Assuming the 14-day right applies to everything. It doesn't — check the regulation 28 exclusions and the digital-content rule before assuming a return is guaranteed.
• Confusing "change of mind" returns with faulty-goods returns. The cost of returning an unwanted item usually falls on you; the cost of returning a faulty item always falls on the trader.
• Accepting a repair without understanding you may have a stronger right. Within 30 days of a fault appearing, you can usually go straight to a full refund rather than accepting a repair.
• Assuming DMCCA 2024 subscription rules already apply. They don't, as at the time of writing — check current commencement status before relying on them in a dispute.
• Chasing the courier instead of the trader when a parcel goes missing. Under section 29 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015, that is the trader's problem to fix.
• Ignoring section 75 or chargeback options when dealing with an unresponsive overseas seller, where enforcing UK consumer rights directly can be slow or impractical.

This guide provides general information about UK e-commerce and consumer law as it applies in England and Wales. It is not legal advice and does not take account of your specific circumstances or contract terms. The position described was accurate as at August 2026 and parts of it — particularly the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024's phased commencement — are subject to change. Always check GOV.UK and legislation.gov.uk for the current position, and if your situation is disputed, high-value or time-critical, speak to someone who can advise on your specific facts.