Digital products and the right of withdrawal

Overview

In the EU, the UK and Turkey a shopper can normally withdraw from an online purchase within 14 days. For digital content this right ends once delivery has started, but only if the shopper asked for immediate access and acknowledged losing the right before paying, and the store confirmed it on a durable medium (email). OrderInChat handles the checkout part of this for you.

When the box appears

• The cart holds a digital product (product type Digital) or a subscription product.
• Physical products, services and bookings do not show the box.
• The box is unticked. Both pay buttons (and the mobile pay bar) stay locked until the shopper ticks it.

The box text, in the checkout language: "I want access to the digital items in my order (including subscription services) to start immediately. I acknowledge that I lose my 14-day right of withdrawal once delivery of digital content has started, and that for ongoing services I will pay for the part provided if I withdraw within 14 days."

What is recorded

• The server refuses the order when the box is required and not ticked.
• The order stores the consent: server time, text version, a fingerprint of the exact text, the language and the products it covers.
• The order confirmation email carries a paragraph that repeats the consent. If you use a custom confirmation template, the paragraph is added automatically before the footer.

Chat, WhatsApp and payment links

• When the assistant, a WhatsApp Flow or Store → Carts creates a payment link for such a cart, the shopper gets the checkout page link instead of a direct card / PayPal / iyzico link, so they can tick the box there. A manual extra discount from the cart screen is not applied to that link.
• ChatGPT instant checkout does not sell digital items while the switch is on; the product stays discoverable and is bought on your store website.

The store switch

Store settings → Selling rules → Digital items: right of withdrawal

• On (default): the box, the order record and the email paragraph as described above.
• Off: digital items keep the normal 14-day right of withdrawal: no box, no email paragraph, and payment links work as before.

Subscriptions

• Renewals do not ask again: the first order holds the consent.
• For an ongoing service, a shopper who withdraws within 14 days pays for the part already provided. OrderInChat has no automatic refunds: work out the used share of the total price and refund the rest from your payment provider.

What you still have to do

• Do not deliver before the confirmation email has gone out. If access or credits are granted before the email is sent (or it bounces), the shopper can still withdraw and pay nothing.
• Faulty items: the box ends the change-of-mind right only. Statutory rights for faulty or non-working digital content stay; never write "no refunds".
• Turkey: add a line to your pre-contract information form (ön bilgilendirme formu) and distance sales contract that the right of withdrawal does not apply to digital content delivered immediately with the shopper's consent.
• Have your terms and the box wording checked by a consumer-law adviser for the countries you sell to. This page is not legal advice.