EU right of withdrawal

If you sell to shoppers in the European Union, the right of withdrawal sets the baseline for when and how they can cancel an order — and what you owe them when they do. This guide covers:

• What the EU right of withdrawal is, and how it differs from a return policy
• What the requirements are, and how to avoid paying for return shipping costs yourself
• How EU returns affect the duty and tax on your orders

What is the EU right of withdrawal? 

The right of withdrawal gives EU consumers 14 days to cancel a distance purchase for any reason — or no reason at all. A "distance purchase" is anything bought without meeting the seller face to face: online, by phone, or by mail order. It comes from the EU Consumer Rights Directive (2011/83/EU) and applies across all EU member states. Because it is tied to the shopper's delivery address, it applies even if your business is based outside the EU — so it covers your orders to EU shoppers, wherever you ship from.

The 14-day window — often called the "cooling-off period" — starts (Article 9):

• For physical goods (all Zonos shipments): the day the shopper receives the item. If they have named someone other than the carrier to receive it, the 14 days start when that person does. And if an order ships in several deliveries, the clock starts when the last item arrives.
• For services: the day the contract is agreed.

The EU shopper has that 14-day post-delivery window to decide whether they want to return the item(s), for any reason at all. If they do, they must notify you within that 14-day period. They can use the EU's standard withdrawal form or any other clear statement. Once they have withdrawn, they have another 14 days to send the goods back, and you have 14 days to refund them.

How it's different from a return policy

This is the part that trips merchants up. A return policy is yours — you decide the rules, the window, the conditions, and whether you accept returns at all. The right of withdrawal is the law — it is a baseline you cannot remove, shorten below 14 days, or attach conditions to.

A few practical differences:

• No reason required. A shopper does not have to prove a product is faulty or even explain why. "Changed my mind" is enough. It applies to all of their purchases, not just certain situations — which gives EU buyers a built-in cushion against high-pressure sales tactics like "buy 3, get 1 free." Even if a deal nudged them into an impulse buy, they still have 14 days to reconsider.
• It applies even if your store says "no returns." Your policy cannot override the right.
• It is separate from your legal guarantee. The EU's 2-year guarantee for faulty goods is a different protection — the right of withdrawal is about changing your mind, not about defects.

Requirements — and how to avoid paying for return shipping 

Two obligations matter most for cross-border merchants, because getting them wrong is expensive.

1. Tell shoppers about the right — or the window grows by a year

Shoppers must be told about their right of withdrawal before they buy. If they aren't, the 14-day window extends by 12 months on top of the original 14 days — so a shopper could cancel an order as much as a year and 14 days after delivery. Clear, upfront information is the simplest way to keep the window at 14 days.

2. Tell shoppers they pay return shipping — or you do

By default, the shopper pays to return the goods. But there is a catch that catches a lot of merchants: the shopper only pays if they were told, before they bought, that they would be responsible for return shipping. If that wasn't disclosed beforehand, the return cost falls to you (Consumer Rights Directive, Article 6(1)(i), 6(6), and 14(1)).

For cross-border orders this is not a small number — returning a parcel from the EU back to the US or Asia can cost more than the product. So the way to avoid being liable is simple: state clearly, before purchase, that the shopper pays for return shipping if they withdraw.

There is one extra step for bulky items. If a product, by its nature, can't normally be sent back through the post — furniture or other oversized goods — telling the shopper they pay is not enough on its own. You also have to give them an idea of what that return will cost, before they buy. You don't need an exact figure; a reasonable estimate, such as a stated maximum, is enough (Article 6(1)(i)). Leave it out and, as above, the return cost falls to you.

Setting up the return-cost disclosure (Zonos Checkout)

To turn it on, go to Settings → Checkout settings in the Zonos Dashboard, find the EU withdrawal policy section, and toggle Show EU withdrawal notice on. Once it's on, Zonos shows the notice automatically whenever the ship-to address is in the EU — EU shoppers see it before they buy, and shoppers elsewhere aren't shown a message that doesn't apply to them.

You can optionally add a maximum return shipping cost (with its currency). It's optional in the setting, but required if your goods can't normally be returned by post:

• Without a maximum (most merchants). If your products can all be returned by normal post, leave the maximum blank. The shopper sees: "If you later choose to exercise your right to withdrawal, you will be responsible for any associated return shipping costs."
• With a maximum. For goods that, by their nature, can't normally be returned by post — bulky or oversized items — the directive requires you to state the return cost or a reasonable estimate. Add the maximum return shipping cost and its currency, and it's included in the message: "If you later choose to exercise your right to withdrawal, you will be responsible for any associated return shipping costs, up to a maximum {amount}."

If you're writing your own disclosure (on a non-Checkout connection), the consolidated Consumer Rights Directive includes model instruction language for return costs (see point 5b) you can adapt.

What you owe the shopper on a valid withdrawal

When a withdrawal is valid, you must refund everything the shopper paid, within 14 days of being notified. That includes:

• The full price of the goods.
• The original delivery cost — but only up to your cheapest standard delivery option. If the shopper chose a premium or expedited upgrade, you do not have to refund the extra (Article 13(2)).
• Any duty and tax you collected from them at checkout on a landed cost (DDP) order (more on this below).

You can hold the refund until you receive the goods back, or until the shopper proves they have sent them — whichever comes first.

When the right of withdrawal does not apply 

The right is broad, but the EU lists a specific set of exceptions in Article 16. The 14-day right generally does not apply to:

• Custom or personalized goods — for example, a made-to-measure suit or an engraved item.
• Perishable goods — food and other items that spoil quickly.
• Sealed health or hygiene goods the shopper has unsealed — for example, opened cosmetics or earrings.
• Sealed audio, video, or software the shopper has unsealed — such as an opened DVD.
• Digital content the shopper started downloading or streaming after agreeing to waive the right.
• Newspapers and magazines (subscriptions are an exception to this exception).
• Goods bought at public auction, and certain urgent repair or maintenance services.

If most of your catalog falls into one of these categories, fewer of your orders will be subject to withdrawal — but check each case carefully, because the exceptions are narrow.

The withdrawal button 

Everything above — the 14-day right, the information you owe shoppers, who pays for return shipping — has been EU law for years. What's new is one thing: a button requirement that makes the existing right easier to find and use.

Directive (EU) 2023/2673 amends the Consumer Rights Directive, effective June 19, 2026, to require that online stores selling to EU consumers provide a prominent, easy-to-find withdrawal function (a button or link) so a shopper can start a withdrawal as easily as they bought.

The rule requires:

• A clearly visible button or link, available throughout the 14-day window, that the shopper can use without being forced to create an account (looking the order up is allowed).
• A short confirmation step that captures the shopper's name and order details.
• An automatic acknowledgment the shopper can keep, such as an email. Simply letting shoppers email you to cancel is not enough on its own — there has to be a real button and confirmation step.

To be clear about what the button changes: it does not create any new rights. The 14-day right already existed — the button only makes it more visible and easier to act on. That visibility is worth planning for. Depending on how prominently the button appears to your EU shoppers, you may see an increase in withdrawal requests simply because the right is now easy to find and start. It is not a reason to expect a sudden flood — cross-border shoppers still pay return shipping, and returns are mostly driven by product fit — but a more visible right tends to be a more frequently used one.

Handling a withdrawal request as a Zonos merchant 

The right of withdrawal applies after delivery, so by the time a shopper withdraws, the order has already shipped and arrived. Handling the request in Zonos is about canceling the order to process the refund — not about stopping a shipment.

• Plugin merchants: order cancellations sync both ways, so you can cancel in either your ecommerce platform or the Zonos Dashboard — whichever you normally use — and it will sync to the other. It's still worth confirming the cancellation shows in both systems.
• JS/Script integration merchants: because your Zonos orders may not be flowing into your ecommerce platform, you can cancel the order in the Zonos Dashboard, or automate it with the orderCancel API mutation to cancel by order number.
• Other: if you don't process orders through Zonos but sell to the EU from your ecommerce website, work with your ecommerce platform provider to make sure you're set up to handle withdrawals and stay compliant.

How EU returns affect duty and tax on your orders 

This is where a withdrawal differs from a normal domestic return, and where the costs can add up if they catch you by surprise. Two separate things happen — refunding the shopper, and recovering what was paid to customs — and they do not net out the way merchants often assume.

What you refund the shopper

On a landed cost (DDP) order, the duty and tax the shopper paid at checkout are part of "everything they paid," so they are included in the refund. For example, on a €200 order to Germany where the shopper paid €40 in duty and import VAT, the refund includes that €40, plus the goods and your standard shipping rate.

What you can recover

Recovering the return shipping and the duty and tax you already paid to customs is the merchant's responsibility — it is not covered by the Zonos Landed Cost Guarantee, which applies to the original import quote, not to returns. In practice:

• Standard imports (typically orders over €150): once Zonos has collected the duty and tax and paid it through to the carrier on import, those amounts are usually not worth chasing. You can still file a claim with the destination's customs authority to try to recover them, but in our experience those claims rarely succeed — so the safest move is to plan for the duty and tax as a cost of the return.
• Low-value orders (€150 or under, handled through IOSS): the import VAT is recoverable. Because it was remitted on Zonos's IOSS registration, Zonos recovers it by correcting the IOSS filing — no customs paperwork needed on your end.

So the realistic expectation to set: on an EU return you recoup your own return shipping and, in most cases, absorb the duty and tax already paid on import — with low-value IOSS VAT being the one piece that reliably comes back.

Recap 

1. The right of withdrawal gives EU shoppers 14 days to cancel a distance purchase for any reason — it is the law, not a return policy you control, and it applies to cross-border sellers shipping into the EU.
2. The new withdrawal button (effective June 19, 2026) makes the existing right easier to use. It lives on your website and is the seller's responsibility in every case — including Zonos Checkout — so it is not a Zonos feature.
3. Inform shoppers upfront about the right (or the window stretches by 12 months) and about return-shipping responsibility (or you pay for returns). Zonos Checkout's optional pre-purchase consent handles the return-cost disclosure for Checkout merchants.
4. A valid withdrawal means refunding everything the shopper paid, including standard shipping and the duty and tax collected at checkout.
5. Recovering return shipping and duty/tax is your responsibility, not part of the landed cost guarantee. Duty and tax on standard imports generally can't be recovered; low-value IOSS VAT can.

Additional resources

• Returns and the right of withdrawal — Your Europe — the EU's plain-language overview, written for shoppers.
• Consumer Rights Directive (2011/83/EU) — summary — a readable summary of the law behind the right of withdrawal.
• Consumer Rights Directive — full consolidated text — includes the model withdrawal instructions and return-cost language (point 5b) for merchants writing their own disclosure.
• Directive (EU) 2023/2673 — the amendment introducing the withdrawal button.
• The specific provisions referenced in this guide: Article 6 (pre-purchase information), Article 9 (start of the 14-day period), Article 13 (reimbursement), and Article 14 (return costs).