UK Distance Selling Regulations Checklist

If you sell to UK consumers from a website, an app, or a marketplace listing, you are making "distance" contracts — sales agreed without the buyer and seller meeting face to face. UK law attaches a specific set of consumer rights to those sales: a right to cancel within a cooling-off period, a duty to refund within set timeframes, and a duty to give the buyer clear pre-contract information before they pay, including who you are and how to reach you.

People still call this "distance selling regulations," but the older Distance Selling Regulations were replaced. The rules that apply to most online consumer sales today live in the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, sitting alongside the Consumer Rights Act 2015. The phrase persists because the substance is the same: tell buyers their rights up front, honour the cancellation window, and refund promptly. This checklist turns that into concrete launch-time items a solo builder can act on, and maps each one to a public signal LaunchTrust can detect on your live store.

A note before the list: the headline cancellation period for most goods bought at a distance is commonly 14 days, but there are real exceptions (made-to-order items, sealed goods unsealed after delivery, and digital content the buyer agreed to start receiving immediately, among others), and the clock can start at different points for goods versus services. Treat the numbers below as the common defaults and confirm the specifics for what you actually sell.

The UK distance selling checklist

Work through these before you point UK traffic at your store. Each item is something you can confirm yourself, and the linked detector tells you whether the matching signal is present on the public page a buyer (or a reviewer) sees first.

A clear cancellation / refund policy is published and reachable — not buried, and not only inside a long terms block. State the cooling-off window, what's refundable, and how to cancel. → maps to refund & cancellation policy
The cooling-off / cancellation right is described up front, before checkout — the commonly expected 14-day window for most goods, plus any exceptions that apply to your products. → refund & cancellation policy
Refund timing is stated — UK rules generally expect refunds without undue delay, commonly within 14 days of cancellation (for goods, often from when you get the item back or proof of return). Say so plainly.
A model cancellation route is offered — an email address, a form, or clear instructions a buyer can use to cancel. A reachable contact route supports this. → maps to contact / imprint
Trader identity and contact details are visible — your trading name, a geographic/postal address, and an email or contact method, so buyers know who they're contracting with. → contact / imprint
Terms and conditions are present and linked, covering the contract, delivery, and how disputes are handled. → maps to terms of service
The total price is clear before payment, including taxes and any delivery or unavoidable charges — no surprise costs sprung at the final step.
Delivery information is stated — what's included, expected timeframe, and any restrictions — since the contract terms must set buyer expectations.
Subscriptions and recurring charges are disclosed — if you bill on a renewing basis, make the recurring nature, amount, and cancellation route explicit before sign-up. → maps to subscription & auto-renewal disclosure
Digital-content rules are handled — if a buyer can download or stream immediately, you typically must get their acknowledgement that doing so may affect the cancellation right. Spell this out at the point of purchase.

If you can tick the cancellation/refund items, the trader-details item, and the terms item, you have addressed the parts of the UK distance-selling regime an online store is most likely to be measured against first.

What LaunchTrust checks for this framework

LaunchTrust cannot assess "distance-selling compliance" — no scanner can. What it does is surface the observable signals a UK-consumer-rights-minded reviewer would look for first, by fetching your public page and inspecting the HTML an anonymous visitor receives. Three detectors map onto this checklist:

The refund & cancellation policy detector is a presence-only signal. It reports detected when it finds a refund/return/cancellation link (e.g. an href to /refund-policy or /returns) or policy wording such as "right to cancel," "right of withdrawal," or "returns and refunds." It reports not detected when neither appears, and unable to determine when the page can't be fetched.
The contact / imprint detector reports detected when it finds a contact or imprint link, a mailto: address, or wording like "contact" or "legal notice" — the trader-identity and cancellation-route signal.
The terms of service detector reports detected when a terms link or terms wording is present on the page.

Each result is a signal, not a judgment. "Detected" means the link or wording is on the page; it does not confirm the policy's window, refund timing, exceptions, or trader details are correct or sufficient under UK law. The scan also reads the single page you submit, so a policy that lives only on an unlinked page won't count until it's linked from (or is) the scanned page.

A concrete example

A store page the scanner reads as detected for the cancellation and contact signals looks like this:

<footer>
  <a href="/refund-policy">Returns &amp; Cancellations</a>
  <a href="/contact">Contact us</a>
</footer>
<p>Right to cancel: you may cancel within 14 days of delivery for a refund.</p>

A checkout page that shows a price and a "Buy now" button but carries no refund link, no policy wording, and no contact route flips those signals to not detected — the exact gap UK distance-selling rules are concerned with, and a common reason for chargebacks and payment-processor queries.

How to address the gaps

Write a plain cancellation and refund policy. State the cooling-off window (commonly 14 days for most goods), how to cancel, what's refundable, who pays return postage, any exceptions (made-to-order, unsealed sealed goods, immediately-supplied digital content), and that refunds are issued without undue delay.
Publish trader details. Add your trading name, a geographic/postal address, and a contact email or form — and make the contact route one click from your storefront so buyers can actually cancel.
Link your terms of service covering the contract, delivery, and dispute handling, and keep the cancellation policy as a distinct, named link rather than burying it inside the terms.
Show the total price before payment. Make taxes and unavoidable charges visible early, not at the last step.
Disclose recurring billing. If you sell subscriptions, make the renewal amount, cadence, and cancellation route explicit before sign-up — see the subscription & auto-renewal disclosure check.
Handle the digital-content acknowledgement. Where a buyer accesses content immediately, capture their consent and the note that this may affect cancellation rights.
Re-scan and confirm. Run the live page and verify the refund, contact, and terms signals flip to detected, then read the policy text yourself in a logged-out browser — staging and production footers often differ.

Check this in 30 seconds

Paste your storefront, product, or checkout URL into LaunchTrust's free scanner. It fetches your live page and reports whether a refund/cancellation policy, contact/imprint route, and terms link are detected, not detected, or unable to determine — so you can spot a missing UK distance-selling signal before a buyer, a regulator, or a payment processor does. No signup, and no crawl of private pages: it reads the same public HTML your visitors get.

FAQ

Are the UK "distance selling regulations" still in force? The original Distance Selling Regulations were replaced. The rules that govern most online consumer sales now are the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, working alongside the Consumer Rights Act 2015. The everyday meaning is unchanged: clear pre-contract information, a cancellation window, and prompt refunds.

How long is the cancellation cooling-off period? For most goods bought at a distance it is commonly 14 days, but the start point differs for goods versus services, and several exceptions apply (made-to-order items, unsealed sealed goods, digital content the buyer agreed to start immediately, and others). Confirm the window for the specific things you sell rather than assuming one number fits all.

Does a "detected" result mean my store complies with UK distance-selling law? No. "Detected" only means the scanner found a refund, contact, or terms link or wording on the page. It does not read your policy's terms, check your refund timing or trader details, and it is not legal advice or certification. LaunchTrust surfaces signals; for your specific situation, consult a qualified professional.

Do digital products and subscriptions follow the same rules? Broadly yes, with twists. Digital content supplied immediately can change the cancellation right if the buyer acknowledges that, and subscriptions add disclosure and cancellation expectations on top. Disclosing your terms clearly is the safer default — see the subscription and auto-renewal disclosure check for the recurring-billing side.

Compliance aid, not legal advice. LaunchTrust reports signals, not a verdict or certification.