The lawyer specializing in consumer law, Grégory Rouland, presents to us a little-known legal mechanism which allows you to be fully reimbursed (delivery and product) up to one year after an online purchase.
Knowing the law can pay off big. Grégory Rouland will not tell you the opposite: this lawyer has made his living. Anyone who presents himself as a consumer defender lifts the veil on a legal system which allows you to be fully reimbursed months after an online purchase.
This provision is the right of withdrawal, governed in particular by articles L221-18 to L221-28 of the Consumer Code. The principle is simple: when you buy a product on the internet, by telephone or outside a store, you have 14 days to change your mind, without having to give a reason. It doesn’t matter if the phone no longer suits you or if the washing machine is too big: the law guarantees you a refund, upon simple request.
But this 14-day period is not an immutable limit. In certain situations, it can be extended well beyond, reveals Grégory Rouland. It all depends on a single document: the sales contract.
How to benefit from an extension of the right of withdrawal? It’s very simple when the seller forgets to mention it in the sales contract or makes an error in this mention. Because the law requires the seller not only to mention the right of withdrawal in the sales contract, but also to precisely detail the terms. And this is where sellers stumble.
“It happens that sellers simply copy article L221-18 which governs the right of withdrawal, but that is not enough,” explains the lawyer. In around thirty cases, Grégory Rouland obtained an extension of the withdrawal period to one year. The reasons are often the same: the seller has not specified the terms of the withdrawal period; he imposed the registered letter as the only means of withdrawal, while the law authorizes any means; he mentioned 14 days from signature without specifying that this period also runs from delivery; or the withdrawal form was simply not compliant.
“Writing article L221-18 is good. Stopping there is a mistake, insists Grégory Rouland. Just yesterday, I planted one in court for this reason.” Direct consequence: if your sales contract is silent on this information or mentions it incompletely, the 14-day period is automatically extended by 12 months. One year during which you can, at any time, demand a full refund of your purchase.
Be careful, however: the right of withdrawal has its limits. In the spirit of the law, it is designed to give the customer time to examine their purchase, as they would in a store.
THE consumption code is very clear: the consumer can only handle the good to the extent strictly necessary to “establish the nature, characteristics and proper functioning” of the product. Wearing a jacket every day for weeks or using a tablet for months before changing your mind is not what the law provides. But now, “to prevent a customer from exercising his right of withdrawal, it will be necessary to demonstrate that he knew that he could withdraw and that he still used the good regularly”, underlines Grégory Rouland.
And that’s not all: the seller will also have to prove that the good has been depreciated, that is to say that it has been damaged or modified. Scratches on a phone screen, a loose sole, unstitched fabric. Without this proof, the reimbursement remains total and if the depreciation is proven, “the seller will only reimburse part of the good.”
