What you need to know about shopping online

A woman sits on the stairs next to a pile of boxes, looking aside thoughtfully

Buying online gives you more rights than buying in a shop. A cooling-off period, a deadline for getting your money back, and delivery costs the shop has to refund. Here you can read, topic by topic, what applies and what you can do with it.

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The rules below apply throughout the European Union to purchases from an online shop that sells to consumers. They are separate from the shop's own terms: a shop may give you more rights, but not fewer.

The four things you will often need

Fourteen days to change your mind

You can send back an online purchase without giving a reason. The period starts on the day you receive your order.
Fourteen days to refund you

As soon as you tell the shop you are withdrawing from the purchase, the clock starts running for the shop.
Outbound delivery costs are refunded

You get back what you paid for delivery when you ordered, up to the cost of the cheapest standard delivery.
A guarantee is something else

The cooling-off period is about changing your mind. The legal guarantee is about a product that is broken or not as described, and lasts at least two years.

Why you need to keep track yourself

An online shop sends you a confirmation when you order, and usually another one when a return has arrived. What you never get is a message saying your cooling-off period is about to run out, or that a refund still has not been paid. That is exactly where money gets left behind.

That is what Orderlyst is for. For each order you see how long you have left to return it and which refunds are still outstanding, and you get a reminder before your return deadline runs out.

The guides below go into the deadlines in more detail, and into what you can do when a shop does not keep to them.

This is general information, not legal advice. National rules can add to it. For your own situation, the consumer authority in your country or the Your Europe consumer pages of the European Union are a good place to start.

The order list in Orderlyst, grouped by ordered, still to pay, returns and settled

All topics

The ADHD tax on returns

The ADHD tax is the money lost to missed deadlines and forgotten admin. With online shopping it is the return that never went back and the refund nobody checked. Practical ways to stop paying it.
Cooling-off period for online shopping

In the EU you have fourteen days to cancel an online purchase, plus fourteen days to send it back. This is how the period works, and these are the exceptions.
How long a refund takes

An online shop has to refund you within fourteen days, but may wait until the parcel is back. This is how you work out when your money should arrive.
Online shop won't refund

Still no money after a return? How to send the shop a formal reminder, which evidence you need, and where to turn in the EU if it is still not sorted.
Keeping track of many orders

Practical ways to stay on top of your online purchases: what to write down, when to update it and how to stop returns from being left lying.