Right of withdrawal: the fourteen days seen from the shop's side

Anyone selling online knows the right of withdrawal exists: fourteen days during which a customer can change their mind. What's often missing is the part that concerns the seller, not the buyer: who pays for the return shipment, when those days actually start, and what happens if the site never writes any of it down before the purchase. These three points, not the length of the withdrawal period itself, are what decide how much a return actually costs the shop.

Fourteen days, no reason required

Article 52, paragraph 1, of Italy's Consumer Code (legislative decree 206/2005) gives the consumer fourteen calendar days to withdraw from a distance contract, without having to explain why, and without costs other than those set out in articles 56, paragraph 2, and 57 (source: Consumer Code, checked on 18 October 2026). This rule only covers purchases between a business and a private individual buying for personal use: if the buyer is another business, acting within its own trade, this discipline doesn't apply, and the relationship between the parties stays governed by the commercial contract itself.

When the days start: the difference between a good and a service

This is where one of the most common mistakes happens: assuming the period starts from the order or the payment. For a physical good, article 52, paragraph 2, starts the count from the day the customer, or someone they designated themselves (other than the carrier), physically receives the product. For a service, it starts from the day the contract was concluded. If an order includes several items delivered at different times, the period runs from the arrival of the last piece, a distinction that matters when a customer claims "it's been more than fourteen days" while counting from the wrong delivery.

Who pays for the return, and why it depends on what was written beforehand

The basic rule is simple: the customer only pays the direct cost of the return shipment (article 57, paragraph 1). But this rule comes with a condition many online shops skip: it only works if the site told the customer, before the purchase, that this cost would be theirs to bear. Article 49, paragraph 1, letter i), sets out exactly this disclosure duty, and article 49, paragraph 6, spells out the direct consequence: if the information wasn't given, the customer doesn't have to pay that cost, and it stays with the shop. In practice, writing "return shipping costs are the customer's responsibility" in the terms of sale, before the order is placed, isn't a formality: it's what actually decides who pays for the return.

The refund itself, from the seller's side, follows a precise timeline. Article 56 requires refunding the customer everything they paid, including the standard delivery cost originally charged (not the cost of a faster delivery chosen voluntarily), without delay and in any case within fourteen days of the shop being informed of the decision to withdraw. The shop can withhold the refund until it receives the product back, or until the customer proves they've shipped it, unless the shop itself offered to collect it.

What happens when the information about withdrawal is missing entirely

Here the risk for the seller grows, it doesn't shrink. Article 53, paragraph 1, provides that if the shop doesn't give the information about the right of withdrawal required by article 49, paragraph 1, letter h, the ordinary fourteen-day period turns into twelve months from its natural expiry. A customer who discovers this right ten months after the purchase, because nobody wrote it down beforehand, can still exercise it. If the information arrives later, but within those twelve months, the customer then has another fourteen days from that moment to decide. That's why a poorly written, or missing, terms-of-sale page isn't just a matter of appearances: it concretely changes how long a purchase stays reversible.

Not everything can be returned

The right of withdrawal isn't universal. Article 59 excludes, among other cases, goods made to measure or clearly personalised, products likely to deteriorate or expire quickly, and goods sealed for hygiene reasons if the customer opened them after delivery. Anyone selling this kind of product needs to flag it before the purchase, because the exclusion has to be disclosed, not simply applied once a return request arrives.

The new requirement: a withdrawal function online too

Worth knowing for anyone selling through their own site, not just through a marketplace: legislative decree 209/2025, in force since 23 January 2026, added the new article 54-bis to the Consumer Code, operative for contracts concluded from 19 June 2026. Anyone selling through an online interface must also offer a dedicated digital function for withdrawal: reachable and visible for the entire fourteen-day period, with a step where the customer fills in the declaration and a following confirmation step, then a receipt the shop must send back with the text of the request, the date and the time. It doesn't replace the other ways of withdrawing that already exist (an email or a letter are still valid), it sits alongside them: a site that sells online and still lacks this function is exposed on an obligation that's already in force.

Where it needs to be written, before the problem shows up

All these rules share one thing: whether they apply or not depends on what the site communicated before the purchase, not on what happens afterward. The terms of sale are where this information belongs, the same way the total price including shipping costs has to appear before the customer sends the order. If you want to check whether your site actually says everything the law requires, before the first disputed return request shows up, it can be part of the digital check-up; otherwise, get in touch.