Cooling Off Period

The cooling-off period is a period during which your customer can cancel an online purchase without giving a reason. In Dutch e-commerce, there is a statutory minimum cooling-off period of 14 days after receipt of the product.

‍

After your customer has used the right to withdrawal to register a return, your customer still has a minimum of 14 days to return the purchase and this is called the return period.

Is a 14-day cooling-off period mandatory?

Offering a 14-day cooling-off period is mandatory for e-commerce under the Distance Selling Act, but not if it is custom-made or if you have set up certain reasonable return conditions as for instance for used lingerie or daily fresh products.

‍

For in-store purchases, this obligation does not apply, and in that case it is completely up to you as a retailer to think about a return policy that encourages purchases and keeps returns as low as possible.

What does returning within 30 days mean?

If an online store indicates that customers can return "within 30 days," this means that customers can return purchased products within 30 days of receipt.

‍

So this is a reflection period that you as an online store offer yourself and is not the same as the European statutory 14-day reflection period for online purchases.

‍

This 30-day period is also separate from the return period of 14 days that starts when a return is registered.