Buying Online: Withdrawal, Returns and Fake Shops

Withdrawal, defect rights or voluntary return?

The parcel does not fit, the shop stopped answering, the goods are defective. The rules below apply to consumers buying from commercial sellers at a distance; purchases between private individuals carry no statutory right of withdrawal:

For all three routes: read what the seller says about returns, costs and responsibility, then act, and document every step.

Before you buy: checking the shop

The signals that actually matter

Fake shops copy design, legal text and even genuine companies' details. A tempting price sets the anchor, countdown clocks create pressure. The German consumer centre describes the typical warning signs: a missing or contradictory legal notice, implausible prices, advance payment as the only option, missing withdrawal instructions and copied seals. No single feature proves fraud, but a cluster is a clear stop signal.

In the first three quarters of 2025, the consumer centres counted more than 8,000 fake-shop complaints, and their fake-shop finder had identified more than 100,000 shops cumulatively by April 2026, around 1,800 new ones per month. The 2025 police crime statistics record 194,466 cases of goods and goods-credit fraud domestically, though that figure includes other offence types and is not a fake-shop count.

Payment methods: what they are worth in a fraud case

Your choice of payment method decides your chances of recovering money when goods never arrive:

Advance payment is the riskiest choice. With unknown shops, use a payment method with buyer protection and read its conditions before paying. The PayPal buyer protection terms require a valid reason such as item not received; a mere change of mind does not qualify.

The five-minute check

1. Open the legal notice and verify the seller details independently.
2. Read the withdrawal instructions: periods, return address, return costs.
3. Follow the payment methods to the final checkout step.
4. Search reviews outside the shop for the exact domain.
5. Read the URL completely and buy elsewhere if in doubt.

In the Fake Shop Check you tick the warnings you found yourself and get a risk rating. The tool does not fetch the shop and evaluates your entries locally. Its score is not a probability of fraud but a way to organise your findings. For a deeper dive, the handbook article Check Website Legitimacy covers the legal notice, seal verification and domain checks in detail.

Withdrawal: counting the 14 days correctly

When the period starts

Do not count from the order or the dispatch date. Under section 356 BGB, the period for ordinary goods generally starts on receipt, but not before proper withdrawal instructions. The event day itself does not count under section 187 BGB; day one is the following day. The period ends under section 188 BGB at 24:00 on the fourteenth day.

Worked examples with weekends and holidays

If the deadline falls on a Saturday, Sunday or a recognised holiday at the place of declaration, section 193 BGB moves the end to the next working day. That is not automatically a Monday if a holiday intervenes. The examples assume proper instructions at the latest on the day of receipt:

The Cooling-off Deadline Calculator works these cases out in the browser: enter the event date, contract type, the federal state for holiday shifts and your planned dispatch date, and the tool shows the calculated deadline at 24:00 with shifts listed separately. The inherited holiday table has documented limits: it counts Reformation Day in Baden-Württemberg and Penitence Day in Bavaria although these are not general statutory holidays there, and it does not know every local holiday. Check the result against your calendar; the place of declaration determines the applicable holidays.

The withdrawal button since June 2026

Since 19 June 2026, section 356a BGB requires an electronic withdrawal function for covered online contracts. The process is set out by statute:

1. A clearly readable, prominent button labelled "Withdraw from contract" (or equivalent), available throughout the period.
2. Entry or confirmation of name, contract identification and an electronic contact for confirmation.
3. A second button confirming the withdrawal.
4. Immediate receipt confirmation on a durable medium with content, date and time.

The button creates no new withdrawal right and does not replace the other routes: email and letter remain valid. What matters is the combination with the instructions: if the function is missing or the shop fails to inform properly about it, the regular period may never start under section 356(3). For goods, the outer limit is then twelve months and 14 days from receipt (section 356(4) BGB). A missing button does not automatically extend the period; it can prevent the period from starting. The consumer centre explains the withdrawal button in detail.

What is excluded from withdrawal

Section 312g BGB lists exceptions, which a shop may not simply declare in its terms but must ground in statute:

Not every online auction falls under the auction exception, and not every opened package triggers a hygiene exclusion. The packaging must have been recognisable as a seal; mere clear film does not qualify according to the consumer centre.

Declaring the withdrawal: form, period, proof

You do not need to give a reason, sign the declaration or use the seller's form. Under section 355 BGB a clear declaration to the seller is enough; timely dispatch preserves the period. A letter or an email both qualify; the statutory model instructions name both explicitly.

What does not suffice is sending the parcel back without a word: the IHK points out that mere return does not replace an explicit withdrawal declaration. A proven template for the email:

I hereby withdraw from the purchase contract for [item], order number [number], received on [date]. Name, address, date.

Secure proof of dispatch: for email, the send time and if necessary a receipt confirmation; for a letter, a posting receipt. The Cooling-off Deadline Calculator also shows the date by which you must have sent the declaration.

For brokerage contracts, the Brokerage Contract Withdrawal Letter builds the withdrawal declaration as a PDF, with a property details field and a reference helper. The tool does not check whether your withdrawal right still exists or whether the period is still running; you must verify both separately. Brokerage contracts differ from goods purchases in some details.

Return shipping costs: what really applies today

The former 40-euro rule no longer applies; it dates from the law before the reform of 13 June 2014. The IHK confirms the change: what matters today is solely whether the seller properly informed you about cost allocation, regardless of the goods' value.

Two qualifications apply: with a full withdrawal, paid standard outbound shipping is refunded, but not the surcharge for a more expensive delivery option. And for bulky goods, the seller must inform you about return shipping costs in distance selling, which still does not create a general entitlement to free freight collection.

In practice, according to EHI, 60.6 percent of surveyed DACH retailers covered return shipping costs fully in 2026, up from 49.2 percent the year before. The major retailers at a glance, as of 30 October 2026:

The table shows the permanent standard terms without limited-time promotions. For purchases between 27 October and 1 December 2026, for example, MediaMarkt names an additional voluntary return right until 31 December 2026. These terms change often and can apply only to certain categories. Check the concrete return options in each shop before relying on a period or cost rule.

Returning an order: seven steps

1. Check your claim and the seller. Change of mind means withdrawal; a defect can trigger defect rights, and if a withdrawal right still exists, that route remains open too, with different cost consequences. On marketplaces, identify the actual seller and their return address; do not blindly reuse the sender address of the original parcel.
2. Declare the withdrawal in time. Use email or the withdrawal button, name the order number, keep the confirmation. The parcel alone is not enough.
3. Pack completely. Include accessories and documents, choose a protective box. Original packaging is not a legal requirement for statutory withdrawal. For electronics, back up and erase personal data, and unlink your accounts first.
4. Document the condition. Photos of the item, accessories and contents; optionally a video of you packing the return for valuable goods. The consumer centre explicitly recommends this against later claims of incomplete returns.
5. Organise the shipping route. Use the seller's label or QR code if offered. Check costs in the returns portal; prepaid does not automatically mean free.
6. Ship within the period. 14 days from the withdrawal declaration, timely dispatch suffices. Keep the tracking number and posting receipt. The trader bears the risk of the return shipment, but a dispatch receipt still matters.
7. Track the refund. Due within 14 days of receiving the withdrawal, generally via the original payment method rather than a voucher. The seller may hold back until the goods arrive or you prove dispatch. If the refund stalls, chase it in writing with order number and evidence.

Complaint instead of withdrawal: the defect rights

If the goods are defective or do not match the agreed specifications, you can use the defect rights. If a withdrawal right still exists, that route remains open too; the cost consequences differ. For ordinary new goods, claims generally become time-barred two years after delivery (section 438 BGB). If a defect appears within the first year, it is presumed to have existed at handover (section 477 BGB); after that year, proving your claim becomes more difficult, but the rights do not end automatically.

The sequence: inform the seller and demand a remedy, meaning repair or replacement. The seller bears the necessary transport costs (section 439(2) BGB). You do not have to wait for two repair attempts in every case: rescission can come into play after a failed remedy or the end of a reasonable period, and section 475d BGB names further cases in which you can rescind or reduce the price without setting another deadline, such as a refused remedy or a serious defect. For a trivial defect, rescission is ruled out, but a price reduction may still be possible.

For sales contracts concluded from 31 July 2026, an extension applies: if you choose repair, the original limitation period is extended once by twelve months under section 475e(5) BGB. The one-year reversal of the burden of proof remains unchanged.

If the shop defrauded you: immediate steps

Fraud follows different rules from withdrawal. Contact your bank or payment provider first:

1. Challenge the payment immediately. Contact your bank or payment provider: request a transfer stop, file a chargeback, open a PayPal dispute or return the direct debit. Do not wait for a police report before informing the bank.
2. Limit further damage. If card details were entered, have the card blocked and check statements. Copied shops sometimes exist only to harvest payment data.
3. Secure the evidence. Collect the offer with its URL, order confirmation, payment receipt, correspondence and screenshots.
4. File a report. With the police in person or via the online police station. Add the case number to your bank or payment provider file.
5. Inform the consumer centre and the platform. Report to the consumer centre; for marketplace purchases also to the platform operator, and for ads to the advertising platform.

The payment deadlines from the payment section apply here too: card chargebacks typically 120 days, PayPal disputes 180 days from payment with 20 days to escalate after opening the dispute. Buyer protection and a card dispute must not run in parallel for the same payment; a card dispute ends the PayPal process. A refund is never guaranteed, and a transfer you authorised yourself cannot simply be reversed. The consumer centre describes the limits of recovering money.

What happens to returns

Amazon describes in its returns-centre report how the return is matched against the order and then checked for signs of use: unused items can be sold as new again, and inspected used items go to its returns shop with a condition description. Other routes are B-stock portals, liquidators, donations and recycling. There is no general destruction ban, but since 19 July 2026 large companies are in principle banned from destroying certain unsold clothing, accessories and shoes; medium-sized companies follow from 19 July 2030. Statutory exceptions remain, for example for dangerous or certain damaged products.

Document the return and include all accessories. That increases the chance the goods can be resold, and it protects you in a dispute about the condition.

Checklist: the whole sequence at a glance

1. Before buying: check the legal notice, withdrawal instructions, payment methods and reviews.
2. File purchase documents and the order confirmation.
3. On change of mind: calculate the period, declare the withdrawal in time, secure proof.
4. Pack completely, photograph the condition, document the shipping route.
5. Track the refund within 14 days, chase it in writing if it stalls.
6. On defects: demand a remedy, mind the periods and the section 475e extension.
7. On fraud: challenge the payment, block the card, secure evidence, file a report.

The Fake Shop Check supports step 1, the Cooling-off Deadline Calculator step 3, and the Brokerage Contract Withdrawal Letter builds the withdrawal declaration for brokerage contracts. All three run in the browser without uploads.