Your Rights When Shopping Online in the EU

The 14-day right to change your mind

For almost anything you buy online from an EU trader, you have a 14-day right of withdrawal. You can return the item within 14 days of receiving it for a full refund — no reason required. You don’t have to explain yourself, and the seller cannot charge a “restocking fee”. The 14 days start the day the goods arrive, and you then have a further 14 days to send the item back once you’ve told the seller you’re withdrawing.

A few things are excluded — made-to-order or personalised goods, sealed items unsealed after delivery (cosmetics, hygiene products), and downloaded digital content you agreed to access immediately. But for the vast majority of physical products, the 14-day right is absolute.

The 2-year guarantee against faults

Separately from the 14-day return, every product you buy in the EU comes with a minimum two-year legal guarantee. If the item is faulty, doesn’t match its description, or stops working through no fault of yours within two years, the seller must put it right — free of charge. This is a legal right; it is separate from, and stronger than, any “manufacturer warranty”, and it cannot be signed away in the small print.

Importantly, the claim is against the seller you bought from — not the manufacturer. If a fault appears, you don’t chase the brand; you go back to the shop.

Faulty goods: repair, replacement, refund

When something is faulty, you’re generally entitled first to a free repair or replacement. If neither is possible, can’t be done in reasonable time, or would cause you significant inconvenience, you can ask for a price reduction or to return the item for a refund. In the period right after delivery, a fault is assumed to have existed from the start — the burden is on the seller to prove otherwise, not on you.

Delivery: what you’re owed

Unless you agreed otherwise, the seller must deliver within 30 days. If they miss it, you can set a reasonable extra deadline; if that passes too, you’re entitled to cancel and get your money back. The item is also the seller’s responsibility until it reaches you — if a parcel is lost or damaged in transit, that’s their problem to fix, not yours.

Who pays for the return?

This is the one place to read the fine print. If you return an item under the 14-day right simply because you changed your mind, you may have to pay return postage — unless the seller offered free returns or failed to tell you the cost upfront. But if the item is faulty, the seller pays for the return, every time. Always check the returns policy before ordering — especially for cross-border purchases, where return postage costs more.

These rights cross borders

Your protection doesn’t stop at your country’s edge. Buy from a trader anywhere in the EU and the same rights apply — the 14-day return, the two-year guarantee, the delivery rules. That’s what makes cross-border bargain-hunting safe: a purchase from a shop two countries away is, legally, no riskier than a local one. If a dispute can’t be resolved, the European Consumer Centres Network (ECC-Net) helps with cross-border complaints for free.

Paying safely

Pay with a method that gives you a fallback. Credit cards and most major payment services let you request a chargeback if a seller disappears or never delivers. Be wary of any seller who pushes you to pay by bank transfer or “friends and family” — that strips away your protection. And check the seller’s rating and review count before you buy: a long track record matters more than a low price.