Money Back on Downloads: The UK Refund Rules Sellers Hope You Won't Read
Photo: Haggis MacHaggis, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Black Friday lands on 27 November in 2026, and the software discounts are already drifting into our inboxes. So before you spend anything, here's the thing worth knowing: the clock on your right to change your mind about software almost never runs for the full 14 days you assume it does. Sometimes it stops the instant you click download. Sometimes it never starts at all. And occasionally the seller would genuinely rather you didn't ask.
None of this is a swindle. It's just that the law on downloading things is narrower than the law on buying a duvet, and almost nobody reads past the headline number. Let's fix that.
The 14 days you've heard about
The Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 give you a cooling-off window on most purchases made at a distance — online, over the phone, from a bloke in a van. For goods it's 14 days from the day you (or your nominated neighbour) receive them. For services and digital content it's 14 days from the day the contract is made. You cancel, the seller refunds, normally within 14 days of your cancellation or of getting the goods back.
That's the version everyone quotes. The next bit is the version they don't.
The download exception — and the three switches that turn it off
For digital content supplied immediately, the cancellation right can disappear once supply has begun. But it doesn't vanish by itself. The seller has to clear three hurdles:
- You gave express consent to supply starting inside the cancellation period.
- You acknowledged that you'd lose your right to cancel as a result.
- The trader confirmed that consent and acknowledgement to you — usually in the order confirmation email.
Miss any one of them and your 14 days survives. A pre-ticked box isn't express consent, and a clause buried on page nine of the terms is not an acknowledgement you can be said to have given. If the seller never sent you anything confirming it, the cancellation period is extended — up to 12 months in the worst case, and then 14 days from the day they finally send the confirmation.
Which means the single most profitable twenty seconds of your shopping year is the one where you screenshot the checkout page before you pay. The tick boxes, the terms link, the total. If there was no tick box, you now have a receipt for the fact.
Where the exception doesn't apply in the first place
- Boxed copies are goods. A disc or a USB stick with a licence code counts as tangible media, so the ordinary 14-day rule applies and you can inspect it the way you would in a shop.
- Subscriptions are services. Cancel within 14 days and you're entitled to your money back, minus a proportionate charge if the seller has already delivered part of the period. They can only skip the refund if the service was fully performed inside those 14 days and you agreed to that up front.
- Bespoke work is out. Software configured or built to your specification falls outside the cancellation right entirely.
Business buyers: the safety net quietly disappears
This is the part that catches out limited companies and freelancers. Both the Consumer Contracts Regulations and the Consumer Rights Act 2015 protect consumers. A company buying a licence — or a sole trader buying something plainly for the trade — is not a consumer, and gets none of the statutory cooling-off rights.
What you have instead is the contract you clicked. So read it, briefly, for three things: a trial or evaluation period, a termination or downgrade clause, and whether support is included or extra. If a business seller misrepresents what the software does, that's a breach of contract claim — and for sums under £10,000, the online money claim service is a genuinely practical route rather than an empty threat.
When your card beats the contract
Two mechanisms, often confused:
| Route | Who it covers | Threshold | Realistic window |
|---|---|---|---|
| Section 75 (Consumer Credit Act 1974) | Consumers paying by credit card | £100–£30,000 | Up to six years, in theory |
| Chargeback | Debit or credit, via scheme rules | No minimum | Usually 120 days from payment |
Section 75 makes the card issuer jointly liable with the seller, which is why it's so effective. It does not cover business purchases or business cards, and it can fall apart where a payment intermediary sits between you and the seller. Chargeback is the humbler option: no legal liability, just a card scheme process, but it works well when a seller has gone silent, a 'free trial' charged you anyway, or a download never arrived.
Try the seller first, in writing, and give them a deadline. Banks like to see that you did.
If the software is broken, that's a different argument
The Consumer Rights Act 2015 says digital content must be of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose and as described. If it isn't, you're entitled to a repair or replacement within a reasonable time; if that fails or isn't possible, a price reduction; and a refund where a reduction doesn't make sense. If the content damages your device or other files and the trader didn't take reasonable care, compensation comes into it too.
Don't muddle the two arguments. 'I've changed my mind' is a cancellation case. 'It doesn't do what the listing said' is a faulty-goods case. Mixing them gives a support agent an easy way to bat you back.
A short script that tends to work
Hello — on 24 November 2026 I bought [product] from you, order reference [XXXX]. I'm a consumer and I'm cancelling the contract under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, within 14 days of it being made. I did not give express consent to immediate supply and was not asked to acknowledge that I would lose my cancellation right, so the 14-day period still applies. Please refund £[amount] to the original payment method within 14 days. If I haven't heard from you by [date seven days out], I'll raise a chargeback with my card issuer. Happy to forward screenshots of the checkout.
Three habits make that land harder: say 'I am cancelling' rather than 'can I cancel'; keep it to one clear request per email; and reply to the same thread so the timeline is in one place.
Two small print details worth remembering
Refunds should include the VAT you were charged. Business buyers reclaim it anyway, so the real cash-flow sting is the net figure. And annual auto-renewals are often argued to be fresh distance contracts — worth quoting at a seller who took your money for year two without a reminder email.
The refund isn't a favour. It's a right, conditional on a few hoops the seller was obliged to hold up for you. Know which hoops, and most of the time the money comes back without a fight.
