Apply the EU Right of Withdrawal to Your Offers

This guide is for general information only and is not legal advice. Whether the right of withdrawal applies to your offers — and what your checkout language needs to say — depends on your specific situation. Work with a licensed attorney in your area to confirm your obligations before relying on anything here. You are responsible for determining which laws apply to your business.

By the end of this guide

You will know whether the EU right of withdrawal applies to your offers, how to capture the required acknowledgment from your customers at checkout, and how to set up a withdrawal route for offers where the right does apply.

In this guide

1. What the right of withdrawal requires

2. Digital content: why the right often does not apply

3. Capture acknowledgment at checkout

4. Set up a withdrawal route for customers who need one

What the right of withdrawal requires

Under EU law, customers who buy online have a 14-day right of withdrawal — a cooling-off period where they can change their mind, cancel the purchase, and receive a refund. A new requirement (Section 356a of the German Civil Code, putting EU Directive 2023/2673 into effect) says that where this right exists, you must give customers a clear, easy-to-find button to exercise it.

Digital content: why the right often does not apply

Most Simplero sellers offer digital content that customers can access or download right away — an online course, a coaching program, a digital download. For digital content like this, the 14-day right of withdrawal often does not apply, as long as the customer agrees to immediate access and acknowledges that this means they lose the withdrawal right.

The right does not disappear on its own. It only falls away when two things happen at checkout:

1. The customer asks you to start the service right away, before the 14 days are up.

2. The customer confirms they understand that immediate access means they lose the right to withdraw.

Both parts must be in your acknowledgment wording. A licensed attorney should review your wording for your specific offers.

Capture acknowledgment at checkout

The simplest way to handle this for digital content is to add a required checkbox to your order form. The customer must check it before they can complete the purchase, so you capture the acknowledgment for every sale.

1. Go to Sales → Products.

2. Open the product you want to edit.

3. Click the Order form tab.

4. Scroll to the Participant fields section.

5. Click Add participant field.

6. Select the Single checkbox from the field types.

7. Give it a label, then turn the Required toggle on in the participant fields table.

You can display your acknowledgment text in two ways:

• As the checkbox label. When you create the Single check box field, paste your full acknowledgment wording as the label. It appears next to the checkbox.

• As custom copy above the form. On the Order form tab, scroll to Options and add your text under Before the form.

Example acknowledgment wording:

I consent to immediate access to this digital content and acknowledge that I lose my 14-day right of withdrawal once access begins.

Set up a withdrawal route for customers who need one

If your offer carries the full right of withdrawal — for example, a physical product or a service that starts after 14 days — you need to give customers a clear way to withdraw. Simplero does not have a built-in withdrawal button, so you set up the route yourself using one or more of the options below.

Option 1: Use the Help Desk

The Help Desk (support tickets) is available on every page of your site and does not require a login, making it a natural withdrawal route.

1. Set up your Help Desk at Settings → Help Desk.

2. Add it to your site from the Help Desk settings page.

3. Tell your customers to submit withdrawal requests through the Help Desk.

Customers access it from the question-mark icon in the bottom corner of every page on your site.

Option 2: Add a CTA button to your site navigation

Add a prominent button that links to your withdrawal route or Help Desk.

1. Go to Site → Edit layout & navigation.

2. Open the Header section.

3. Turn on the CTA Button.

4. Click Choose the link and select your Help Desk page or another withdrawal page.

Option 3: Link to purchase management

Give customers a direct link to view and manage their purchases:

• To let customers see all purchases on your site, append /order_history to your site URL (for example, yoursite.com/order_history).

• To link to a specific product's purchases, use the URL picker in the page builder: select the product, then choose Manage purchase.

Add this link to your site footer, a dedicated withdrawal page, or your Help Desk confirmation messages.

Troubleshooting

• Why can't I see the Help Desk option in my settings?
  The Help Desk is available on all plans except Starter. If you are on the Starter plan, the Help Desk is not included.

• What if a customer from outside the EU sees the acknowledgment checkbox?
  The participant field checkbox appears on your order form for every customer, regardless of location. If you want to show it only to EU customers, you need custom code on your order form.

• Can I add the acknowledgment text as the checkbox label itself?
  Yes. When you add a single checkbox participant field, the label becomes the text next to the checkbox. You can paste your full acknowledgment wording there.

Keywords: right of withdrawal, EU withdrawal right, German withdrawal button, cooling-off period, digital content exception, withdrawal acknowledgment, order form checkbox, required checkbox, B2C compliance, EU consumer law, Section 356a