If you sell to UK consumers online, two rules matter above all others: your goods must be as described, fit for purpose and of satisfactory quality, and most customers have a 14-day right to change their mind and get a refund — no reason required. Those two ideas sit at the heart of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, and they apply to every order you take, whether you're a one-person micro-brand or a growing shop. Get them right and you rarely hear a complaint. Get them wrong and you're exposed to chargebacks, bad reviews, and Trading Standards.
This is a plain-English tour of what those laws actually require, written for sellers rather than solicitors. It's general information, not legal advice — for anything specific to your situation, check GOV.UK or speak to a qualified solicitor.
The two laws that govern online selling
UK consumer protection for online shops rests mostly on two pieces of legislation:
The Consumer Rights Act 2015 (CRA). This covers the quality of what you sell — goods, digital content, and services — and the remedies customers get when something is wrong. It applies to every sale to a consumer, in a shop or online.
The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013. These cover "distance selling" — sales made without you and the customer being face to face, which includes essentially all e-commerce. They govern the information you must give before the sale and the customer's right to cancel.
Both apply when you sell to a consumer — an individual buying for personal use — rather than to a business. Business-to-business sales follow different rules. Most direct-to-consumer online shops are firmly in consumer territory, so assume these rules apply unless you know otherwise.
Your goods must clear three tests
Under the Consumer Rights Act, everything you sell has to meet three standards. These are legal rights, not optional promises, and you can't contract out of them with a clause in your terms and conditions.
As described. The item must match any description you gave — on the product page, in photos, in the specification, or in an email. If you list a jumper as "100% merino wool" or "waterproof to 10m", it has to actually be that. Misleading descriptions are one of the easiest ways to end up on the wrong side of the law and of your customers.
Fit for purpose. The goods must be suitable for the purpose they're normally used for — and for any specific purpose the customer told you about before buying. If someone asks whether a bag will fit a 16-inch laptop and you say yes, it needs to.
Of satisfactory quality. The item must meet the standard a reasonable person would expect, taking into account price, description and the nature of the goods. That covers appearance, finish, freedom from minor defects, safety and durability. A £4 phone case and a £400 handbag are judged against different expectations, but both must be free of faults a reasonable buyer wouldn't accept.
Accurate, honest product pages are your first line of defence here. Setting clear expectations up front — realistic photos, precise specifications, no overselling — is both good marketing and good compliance. Our guide to writing product descriptions that convert covers how to be persuasive without straying into claims you can't stand behind.
The 14-day right to cancel (the cooling-off period)
This is the rule that surprises new sellers most. For distance sales, consumers have a legal right to change their mind and cancel — even if there's nothing wrong with the item. They don't need to give a reason.
The key timings under the Consumer Contracts Regulations are:
14 days to cancel the order. For physical goods this window starts the day after the customer receives the item, not the day they order.
A further 14 days to return the goods once they've told you they're cancelling.
14 days for you to refund them after you get the goods back (or after they provide proof of return).
There are important details. If you don't tell the customer about their cancellation right, the cooling-off period can extend by up to 12 months — so hiding the right actually costs you. You must refund the standard delivery cost you originally charged, though you can refund the cheapest delivery option rather than a premium upgrade the customer chose. The customer usually pays for return postage if you told them so beforehand; if you didn't, you foot the bill.
Some things are exempt from the cooling-off right, including customised or personalised items, perishable goods, and sealed items unsealed after delivery for hygiene reasons (and, for digital downloads, content the customer agreed to access immediately). But treat exemptions narrowly — assume the right applies unless your product clearly falls into a listed exception.
Refunds: what you owe and when
Refund obligations trip up a lot of shops because there are actually two different refund regimes, depending on why the customer is returning something.
Change-of-mind returns (cooling-off). Refund within 14 days of receiving the goods back. Refund the item price plus the original basic delivery charge. You can deduct value if the customer handled the goods more than they would in a shop — but only for genuine diminished value, not for opening the box.
Faulty goods. Different, stronger rules apply (see below). Here the customer is entitled to a full refund including delivery both ways if the item is faulty.
Refunds must go back via the same payment method the customer used, unless they agree otherwise. You can't force a customer to accept store credit or a voucher in place of a refund they're legally entitled to. If you use Stripe or PayPal through your shop, refunds are processed back to the original card or account automatically, which keeps you compliant without manual bank transfers.
Faulty goods: the 30-day, six-month and repair-or-replace rules
When an item is faulty — not as described, not fit for purpose, or not of satisfactory quality — the Consumer Rights Act gives the customer a tiered set of remedies:
Within 30 days: the customer has a "short-term right to reject" and can demand a full refund.
After 30 days but within six months: you get one opportunity to repair or replace the item. If that fails, the customer can claim a refund, which may be reduced to reflect use.
Within the first six months: a fault is presumed to have been present at the time of sale, and it's on you to prove otherwise — not on the customer to prove the fault existed.
Beyond six months, the customer can still claim, but the burden shifts to them to show the fault was inherent. These rights sit on top of any warranty or guarantee you offer voluntarily — a manufacturer's warranty never replaces the customer's statutory rights.
The pre-contract information you must provide
The Consumer Contracts Regulations require you to give certain information clearly and before the customer pays. Missing information can make the contract unenforceable or extend the cancellation window. At a minimum, your shop should clearly show:
A clear description of the goods or service and the total price, including taxes and any delivery charges.
Your business identity and a geographic address and contact details — not just a contact form.
Delivery arrangements and expected timescales.
The existence of the 14-day cancellation right, how to exercise it, and who pays return costs.
Your complaints-handling policy and any after-sales guarantees.
You also must not spring surprise charges at checkout: pre-ticked boxes that add paid extras are banned, and payment surcharges are tightly restricted. The button the customer clicks to pay must make it obvious that placing the order creates an obligation to pay — labels like "Pay now" or "Complete order" rather than a vague "Submit".
Most of this lives naturally in a handful of pages — Terms, Delivery, Returns/Refunds, and Contact — plus a clear checkout. A visual theme editor makes it straightforward to add those pages and surface delivery and returns information where buyers actually look. And because clear information also reduces abandoned baskets, it's worth reading alongside our guide to designing trust into your checkout, which shows how transparency lifts conversion as well as compliance.
How this connects to distance selling and data rules
Consumer rights law rarely operates alone. The cancellation and information rules here come from the same distance-selling framework covered in more depth in our distance selling regulations guide — read that next if you want the mechanics of cancellation forms and delivery obligations. And every online shop that collects names, addresses and emails also has data-protection duties under UK GDPR; our GDPR for small online shops guide walks through consent, privacy notices and data handling in the same plain-English style.
Together, those three areas — quality and refunds, distance selling, and data — form the compliance backbone of a legitimate UK online shop. None of them is especially hard once it's set up; the mistake sellers make is ignoring them until a dispute forces the issue.
Building compliance into your shop, not bolting it on
The practical takeaway is that most consumer-rights compliance is really about clarity and follow-through: describe products honestly, publish plain delivery and returns policies, honour the cooling-off period, and process refunds promptly through the payment method the customer used. A modern platform helps by giving you the pages, checkout and payment tooling to do all of that without custom development. Dirora's built-in pages, tax configuration and Stripe/PayPal payments cover the plumbing; the policies and honesty are yours to supply.
It's also worth noting what compliance shouldn't cost you. On thin retail margins, surprise platform charges eat the profit you need to fund refunds and returns. Dirora charges no transaction fees on any plan — the only cut is a small platform fee that falls as you grow, from 1.5% on the free plan to 0.75% on Pro, 0.25% on Business and 0% on Enterprise — so the cost of doing right by customers stays with you rather than the checkout.
Consumer rights law isn't there to trip you up. Handled well, it's simply the baseline of running a shop people trust enough to buy from twice.
Frequently asked questions
Does the Consumer Rights Act 2015 apply to small online sellers?
Yes. The Consumer Rights Act applies to every sale from a trader to a consumer, regardless of business size. A one-person micro-brand has exactly the same obligations as a large retailer: goods must be as described, fit for purpose and of satisfactory quality, with the same refund and repair-or-replace remedies for faults.
How long does a UK customer have to return an online order?
For change-of-mind returns on distance sales, customers have 14 days from receiving the goods to cancel, then a further 14 days to send the item back. If you fail to tell them about this right, the cancellation window can extend by up to 12 months. Faulty goods have separate, stronger rights, including a 30-day full-refund window.
Do I have to refund the original delivery cost?
For cooling-off cancellations, yes — you must refund the item price plus the basic delivery charge you originally applied, though you only have to refund the cheapest delivery option rather than a premium upgrade. For faulty goods, you refund delivery both ways. Return postage for a simple change of mind can be the customer's cost if you told them so beforehand.
What must I tell customers before they buy?
Before payment you must clearly show the goods and total price including taxes and delivery, your business identity and contact address, delivery timescales, and the 14-day cancellation right and how to use it. Surprise charges and pre-ticked paid extras are banned, and the payment button must make clear that ordering creates an obligation to pay.
Is this legal advice?
No. This is general information to help online sellers understand their obligations. Consumer law changes and individual situations vary, so for anything specific check the current guidance on GOV.UK or consult a qualified solicitor before relying on it.