EU Right of Withdrawal

What Is It?

The EU Right of Withdrawal (also known as the “cooling-off period”) is a legal requirement under EU Directive 2011/83/EU on Consumer Rights. It gives consumers in the European Union the right to cancel an online order within 14 days of receiving it, without needing to give a reason.

Retailers selling to EU-based customers are legally required to:

Inform customers of this right — clearly, on all pages of the store (typically via a footer link)
Provide a mechanism for customers to exercise that right (a withdrawal form)
Acknowledge receipt of a withdrawal request in writing

Failure to meet these requirements can expose the retailer to regulatory penalties and extend the withdrawal window to 12 months.

Who Needs to Enable This?

This feature should be enabled by any store that sells to customers in the European Union or European Economic Area (EEA), including but not limited to:

Stores based in EU/EEA countries
Stores based outside the EU that ship to EU/EEA customers (e.g. a US store that ships to Germany, France, Ireland, etc.)

US-only or UK-only stores with no EU customers do not need to enable this. If you are unsure whether this applies to you, check with your legal advisor.

What Happens If You Don’t Enable It?

If you sell to EU customers and do not provide a right of withdrawal mechanism:

The 14-day withdrawal window is automatically extended to 12 months under EU law
You may be in breach of consumer protection regulations in the customer’s country
Customers can still demand a refund and you have fewer legal protections to fall back on

How to Enable

In Webstore Manager, go to Settings → All Config Options
Search for “Enable EU Right of Withdrawal”
Enable the option and fill in:
- From Email — the address withdrawal acknowledgement emails will be sent from (defaults to your store email if left blank)
- Recipient Email — the address that receives withdrawal notifications (defaults to your store email if left blank; supports multiple comma-separated addresses)

The withdrawal form is now live on your store at:

/store/go/withdrawals/

Adding the Required Link to Your Store

EU law requires a clearly visible link on all pages of your store pointing to the withdrawal form. The recommended placement is your store footer. You can edit your footer template on the WSM under Design & Content -> Edit Templates and selecting "Footer" in the dropdown.

If you would like assistance adding the link, contact our support team and we can add it for you.

The link text must be unambiguous. EU Directive 2011/83/EU gives the following as an example of compliant wording:

“Withdraw from contract here”

Labels such as “Returns”, “Refunds”, or “Cancel order” alone do not satisfy the legal requirement. The link must make it unambiguous to the customer that they are exercising a formal right of withdrawal.

The link should point to:

/store/go/withdrawals/

Below is an example of where to place the link in a typical store footer:

How the Withdrawal process Works

The withdrawal process is intentionally two-step to meet EU legal requirements:

Step 1 — Fill in the form: The customer enters their name, order details, and email address. If enabled, they will also be given a captcha challenge.

Step 2 — Review and confirm: The customer is shown a summary and must explicitly confirm. This is the legally binding moment — a timestamp is recorded server-side at the point of confirmation

On Confirmation

The customer receives an acknowledgement email

The retailer recipient email receives a notification email with the withdrawal details and timestamp.

Customising the Templates

The following are all fully customisable in Webstore Manager →Design & Content -> Edit Templates. Any changes should be checked that they still comply with the EU directive.

Template	What It Controls
Contact Us -> EU Withdrawal Form	The withdrawal request form (step 1)
Contact Us ->EU Withdrawal Confirm	The review and confirm screen (step 2)
Emails -> EU Withdrawal Acknowledgement Email	The confirmation email sent to the customer

Additionally, all text in the emails and Withdrawal form and confirmation can be edited using the Language Strings Webstore Manager →Design & Content -> Edit Language. All relevant language strings will start with WITHDRAWALS .

The internal store notification email sent to your Recipient Email address is a plain-text summary and is not template-editable.

EU RIght of Withdrawal