The new EU cancellation policy and how this affects ecommerce globally
The rules of online shopping are about to change. Starting 19 June 2026, the Dutch government will require every online shop, provider or social media seller to include an “obvious cancellation button” on their platform.
In this blog post, we’ll go over what this means for storefronts and customers, how this affects international stores, and how this most likely isn’t the last adjustment to shopping regulations to come.
Background
The new policy is made from implementations of EU regulations 2002/65/EG and 2011/83/EU, describing how to address consumer rights when it comes to online services like ecommerce. As years pass, the regulations have been evaluated, addressing some missing elements that come with the online service environment being more mature than it was in earlier years.
Specifically, the right of cancellation isn’t as widely known as, for example, the right to return a purchase. For the latter, in the Netherlands we have well-known rights such as “niet goed, geld terug” (not good, money back) and the mandatory 14-day return period that guarantees you get your money back. But usually, the option to cancel a purchase is hidden through several clicks on the store website and requires the user to fill out a form or contact customer service.
Thus, to strengthen online customer safety, a new, clearer, and modernized version was made, implementing EU regulation 2023 / 2673, which has been finished and is on its way to go live on 19 June 2026. This addresses specifically the right to cancel a purchase, needing to be as easy as finishing the purchase itself.
What will change?
The amendment specifically notes that a button or some other clickable method should be clearly visible on the website, which would then open the cancellation interface. This button should have clear text explaining the function: canceling the purchase.
After confirmation of the customer, you should send a message confirming the cancellation request has been received. Most likely you already have something like this ready for your existing cancellation policies.
Existing methods to cancel a purchase can still exist; the amendment notes that this is not a replacement but an addition to the cancellation flow.
European-wide and possibly global
As hinted towards earlier, the policy is based on an EU regulation and thus isn’t something unique to the Netherlands. While EU regulations give room for each EU member state to adjust specifics, the core stays the same: customers will be able to cancel purchases more easily and quicker.
This means that as time progresses, other EU countries will have their own implementation in place. This is similar to how GDPR works: an EU regulation that all member states should make sure is maintained. The EU has furthermore proven itself to be an example for global policies. Since maintaining different policies can be costly, it wouldn’t be strange to see stores outside the EU to adopt this interface as well.
How will this affect ecommerce?
The proposed regulation may have significant consequences for online retailers, particularly regarding cancellation behavior and operational costs.
Sending a purchase should be as easy as cancelling it. With the cancellation option being more prominent on ecommerce websites, this could mean that, in addition to impulsive purchases, we might see impulsive cancellations as well.
This in return can lead to higher returns and more impulsive purchases since cancelling a purchase becomes less of a hurdle. This is particularly an effect in combination with impulsive purchases and other, less impulsive variants where the user still might hesitate whether the product was the right fit for their use case. Less confidence in a purchase choice can lead to a later cancellation.
With more cancellations comes more interruptions of sales pipelines, in addition to the return flow. From inventory tasks to sending to post, any point is one where the user can cancel the purchase. This, in turn, can lead to higher costs. And with the “buy today, get tomorrow” policy mostly presented in the current day, most of the sales pipeline will already be finished in the first days of the 14 when the user can cancel the purchase.
All in all, as an ecommerce merchant, it would not be odd to expect higher costs to, in addition to returns, cancellations before a product was sent out.
How can I alleviate the increased cancellation costs?
The issue with reducing costs does not lie with the new policy specifically. After all, customer safety is a positive outcome. The real opportunity to save costs is to increase confidence in a purchase, to ensure that the user is less likely to cancel.
It’s important to always improve customer experience. Giving more confidence to your customers will reduce the abandonment rate of your online platform. What helps is simplifying the customer experience, sales agents, and recommendation systems in addition to a good, robust search solution.
The key is to adapt. This won’t be the last regulation on customer safety. As mentioned earlier, this new regulation is a modern update to an existing one, and it wouldn’t be strange to expect this current update to be evaluated and modernized at some later point as well. For example, this policy does not include the effects that agentic commerce has on consumer rights, with customers possibly not even visiting the online store directly anymore.
