The EU is requiring every online store that sells to its consumers to add a clearly labeled electronic withdrawal button by June 19, giving shoppers an easy way to cancel eligible orders within the region’s required 14-day window, regardless of where the business is based. That means if you’re a U.S.-based business that sells to customers in Italy or France (or anywhere else in the EU), you’re required to have the button.
The rule, from Directive 2023/2673, only standardizes how customers submit a cancellation, meaning it’s not required to trigger an automatic refund, which would be ripe for abuse. Merchants will still need to confirm receipt of the cancellation request by e-mail and check eligibility, with custom, perishable, and sealed hygiene goods exempt.
One important thing to note… EU consumers have had a 14-day “cooling-off” window to cancel online orders without giving a reason since 2014. The only thing changing now is the requirements around how they can exercise that right. Until now, merchants could bury cancellation behind an e-mail address, a PDF form, or a phone number, whereas now, the button must be continuously available during the withdrawal period, prominently displayed (not just on the order confirmation), easily accessible, and labeled specifically to indicate withdrawal. Clicking must trigger a two-step flow where the customer enters their name and order details and confirms their request, after which the store must send an automatic confirmation on a “durable medium” like email.
Stores that don’t comply risk fines reaching up to €2M or 4% of EU annual turnover, plus an extended withdrawal window that can stretch to 12 months and 14 days.
How are major platforms handling this change?
- Shopify published compliance guidance and told merchants in its developer community that new features to help with compliance were rolling out the week before the deadline, but it currently has no fully native, one-click withdrawal button that satisfies the requirement out of the box.
- WooCommerce published a guide explaining how to construct the two-step flow using generic form plugins, shortcodes, and transactional emails. However, core WooCommerce features no native, out-of-the-box solution quite yet.
- BigCommerce currently has no native withdrawal function either, leaving merchants to rely on third-party services or a manually developed solution.
- Amazon and Etsy, as marketplaces that control the checkout, generally carry the compliance burden themselves, meaning sellers on those platforms are typically covered by the marketplace rather than having to add their own button.
