Cancellation right

When shopping as a consumer on the Internet with a trader within the EU you are normally entitled to cancel your purchase, which means that you may return the goods and get your money back without having to give a reason.

In this section you can read more about the most important facts you should know about the cancellation right. 

•   When do you have a cancellation right?
•   How long is the cooling-off period?
•   How to cancel?
•   Money back
•   The seller’s duty of disclosure
•   Restrictions on the cancellation right
•   The cancellation right in the individual EU countries

When do you have a cancellation right?
When shopping as a consumer on the Internet with a trader within the EU you are normally entitled to cancel your purchase, which means that you may return the goods and get your money back without having to give a reason. The fact that you may cancel the purchase means that you may return the goods and get your money back without having to give a reason.

The cancellation right applies to both goods and services.

You have a cancellation right no matter which EU country you are shopping in, but the rules vary from country to country. In some cases you are protected by the Danish rules, and in others it is the legislation of the seller’s home country that applies. You are, for example, protected by the Danish rules if the sellers have carried out marketing aimed at the Danish market. The decision as to whether the seller’s marketing was aimed at the Danish market will be based on a specific evaluation, but indicators are a Danish-language website, prices in Danish kroner and delivery to Denmark.

How long is the cooling-off period?
In Denmark the cooling-off period is 14 days, but if you are trading on a foreign website it is often the legislation of the seller’s country that applies. However, the time-limit cannot be shorter than seven 7 weekdays from receipt of the goods. If you wish to know how long the cooling-off period is in another EU country you will find the answer in our overview of cooling-off periods in the individual EU countries.

If the seller’s marketing was aimed at the Danish market you are protected by the Danish rules, and the time-limit is fourteen days from receipt. The decision as to whether the seller’s marketing was aimed at the Danish market will be based on a specific evaluation, but indicators are a Danish-language website, prices in Danish kroner and the fact that the seller makes deliveries to Denmark.

In some cases, however, the cooling-off period may be as long as up to three months. See the section on the seller’s duty of disclosure.

How to cancel?
If you have bought goods on the Internet and subsequently wish to exercise your cancellation right you must return the goods to the seller within the cooling-off period. If you cancel a purchase you must pay for the return freight yourself.

Under Danish law you may also exercise your cancellation right by not accepting the goods when they are delivered at your place, but you should bear in mind that it is still you who have to pay for the return.

If you have returned the goods within the prescribed period and they are – through no fault of yours – damaged or lost during transport, you will retain your cancellation right. It is therefore important that you get a date stamped receipt for your dispatch of the goods.

If you have bought a service you need only inform the seller that you wish to cancel the purchase within the time-limit. You can, for example, do this by email.

Money back
If you have cancelled a purchase in due time the seller must repay your money within 30 days counted from the day of his receipt of your goods. You have a right to obtain repayment of both the price of the goods and the delivery costs.

The seller’s duty of disclosure
When you buy goods and services on the Internet the seller is to some extent subject to a duty of disclosure. For most purchases the seller is required to give you the following information on the date of delivery at the latest:
  

• His name, main activity and a physical address to which you may complain
• The nature and most important qualities of the goods or the service
• The total price
• Terms of payment, delivery, notice period, if any, etc
•  Whether there is a cancellation right – both if there is and if there is not – and the related conditions.

The information must be given to you in writing – either on paper or by an email.

If you have received this information correctly, the cancellation right will run from the date of your receipt of the goods or from the date of making the agreement on the purchase of a service. Otherwise it will only run from the date of your receipt of the information, however, not more than three months after delivery of the goods or the making of the service agreement.

Restrictions on the cancellation right
The cancellation right does not apply to all types of purchases, nor all types of goods and services. There may also be cases where you are normally entitled to cancel but where the right lapses or where you and the seller may agree that it shall be shorter.

To have a statutory right to cancel you must have entered into a socalled distant selling agreement, i.e. an agreement entered into without you and the seller meeting physically. Therefore, you will have no cancellation right if you only obtain contact with the seller through the Internet but go to his place of business to buy the goods. If, however, you buy and pay for the goods on the Internet but pick up the goods at the seller, you will have a cancellation right, the decisive fact being that the agreement was made on the Internet.

If you have bought a service or a product which is to be specially made for you, the seller may agree with you that the cancellation right will lapse when the seller commences the work. This means that in some cases the cancellation right will be shorter than the 14 days.

Some goods and services are not subject to any cancellation right at all. This applies, for example, to hotel accommodation and other accommodation, transport or tickets to events such as concerts, theatre and sports events – boiled down, you can say, to services related to time and place. In these cases you are normally bound by the agreement and will therefore typically have to pay for hotel accommodation or train tickets booked by you even if you are prevented from using them.

Nor does the cancellation right apply to the delivery of foodstuffs.

As regards music, films or software, your cancellation right may lapse if you break the packaging/sealing. In Denmark, however, a seller is under an obligation expressly to point out to you this consequence of breaking the packaging/sealing.

Lastly, you only retain your cancellation right to the extent you can return the goods in essentially the same condition and quantity as they were in when you received them.

The other EU countries may have rules about the cancellation right which differ from the Danish rules, so it is a good idea to examine the terms and conditions relating to the cancellation right before shopping.

The cancellation right does not affect your right of complaint, and you may of course always complain about defects in the goods or the service.

The cancellation right in the individual EU countries