Withdrawal (EU)

If you sell to customers in the European Union, the law gives them the right to change their mind and cancel a purchase within a set cooling-off period. FluentCart's Withdrawal (EU) feature builds this right directly into your store. It gives shoppers a guided "Withdraw from contract" form, sends them an instant acknowledgment by email, and gives you a clean dashboard to review and decide on every request.

This page explains the law in plain terms, walks through every admin setting, and shows the full customer journey from declaration to acknowledgment.

INFO

This guide is a practical explanation of how the feature works. It is not legal advice. Consumer law differs from country to country, so check your own obligations or speak to a qualified advisor before relying on these settings for compliance.

Understanding the Right of Withdrawal

The right of withdrawal comes from the EU Consumer Rights Directive (2011/83/EU). It lets consumers cancel most distance and off-premises purchases (for example, anything bought online) and get their money back. The key points that shape how FluentCart behaves are below.

• A 14-day cooling-off period. Consumers have 14 days to withdraw from a distance or off-premises contract without giving any reason and without penalty. This is why FluentCart never forces a customer to explain why they are withdrawing.
• When the clock starts. For goods, the 14 days generally run from the day the consumer (or someone they nominate) receives the items. For services and digital content, they generally run from the day the contract is concluded.
• The 12-month extension. If you fail to tell customers about their right of withdrawal, the period is extended by up to 12 months. Making the withdrawal page easy to find is the simplest way to stay on the right side of this rule.
• A clear declaration is enough. Consumers can use a model withdrawal form or any other unequivocal statement to declare they are withdrawing. FluentCart's guided form is exactly this kind of clear statement, captured and time-stamped for you.
• Refunds follow. Once a valid withdrawal is made, the trader reimburses the consumer (usually within 14 days). FluentCart records the request and estimates the refund, but it always leaves the actual refund in your hands.
• Some sales are exempt. Under Article 16 of the Directive, the right of withdrawal does not apply to certain contracts, for example custom or personalized goods, perishable items, sealed goods unsealed for health or hygiene reasons, sealed audio, video, or software that has been opened, and digital content whose download has begun with the consumer's prior consent. The Excluded product categories setting (below) lets you flag these.

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FluentCart is built to never silently refuse a declaration. Even when an order falls outside your time window or an item is in an excluded category, the customer can still submit. They simply see a warning, and the request lands in your dashboard for a human decision. This protects you from accidentally blocking a request the law actually permits.

For the full legal text, see the official EU summary, Consumer information, right of withdrawal and other consumer rights, and the Consumer Rights Directive 2011/83/EU.

Enabling the Feature

Withdrawal (EU) is a FluentCart module, so you first turn it on from the Features & Addon section. Once it is active, a dedicated Withdrawal (EU) tab appears in your settings sidebar.

1. From your WordPress dashboard, navigate to FluentCart Pro > Settings.
2. Select the Features & Addon tab from the left-hand sidebar.
3. Find the Withdrawal (EU) module and toggle it on.
4. Click Save Settings to apply the change.

For more on managing modules, see Features & Addons.

Accessing Withdrawal Settings

With the module active, all of its controls live in one settings tab. To open it:

1. From your WordPress dashboard, navigate to FluentCart Pro > Settings.
2. Select the Withdrawal (EU) tab from the left-hand sidebar.

The settings are grouped into four areas: Button Placement, Form Behaviour, Time Windows, and Order Filtering, plus the Select Withdrawal Page option at the bottom. Each is covered below.

Button Placement

This section controls where the "Withdraw from contract" button appears in the customer portal. Once a request has been opened or decided, a status label is shown in place of the button so the customer always knows where their request stands.

• Show in subscription detail: Adds the withdrawal link to the customer's subscription detail view.
• Show in order detail: Adds the withdrawal link to an individual order's detail view.
• Show in customer dashboard: Adds the withdrawal link to the main customer dashboard.

Turn on whichever placements match how your customers browse their account. The more visible the link, the easier it is to meet the "must be clearly informed" requirement described above.

Form Behaviour

These options shape what the customer sees and how strictly each declaration is checked.

• Require a verified order match: (Toggle, off by default) When this is off (recommended), declarations that cannot be automatically matched to an order are still accepted and queued as unverified, so a genuine withdrawal is never refused on a technicality. Turn it on only if your operations require a matched order before a request can be processed.
• Show the optional note field: (Toggle) Lets the customer add an optional free-text note to their declaration. This is for any extra context. The choice of which items to withdraw is handled separately by the item-selection step.
• Allow partial revocations: (Toggle) When on, customers can withdraw from some items while keeping others. When off, every request is treated as a full contract withdrawal and the item-selection step is hidden.
• Item selection step (who can use it): Controls which customers see the item-selection step.
  • Account owner (logged in, email + invoice match): Only customers who are logged in with the account that placed the order, and whose email and invoice match, see the step.
  • Email-verified submitter (invoice + email match): The step is also shown to any customer (including guests) who correctly matches the receipt number and billing email.

INFO

The emails that go out during the withdrawal flow (acknowledgment, accepted, and declined) are managed under Email Configuration > Notifications. See Configuring Email Notification to customize their wording.

Time Windows

These two fields let you mark older orders as outside the cooling-off period. Both are measured in days, and 0 means no restriction.

• Statutory cancellation period (days): The maximum age of an order, based on its completion date, that is still eligible for withdrawal. Orders older than this show a warning to the customer, but, in keeping with the design above, they are never hard-blocked.
• Exclude orders older than (days): A fallback age check based on the order's creation date. This is useful when orders are created in stages before completion. As with the field above, it produces a warning rather than a block.

Order Filtering

This section decides which orders and products are eligible, and where the withdrawal page lives.

• Blocked order statuses: Orders in any of these statuses are rejected at the first step, and the withdrawal button is hidden in the customer portal. Withdrawing against an order that was, for example, Cancelled, Failed, Draft, or Completed is operationally meaningless, so these make sensible defaults.
• Blocked shipping statuses: Orders whose shipping status matches one of these values (for example, Shipped) are rejected at the first step, and the button is hidden. Shipping status is tracked separately from order status, which is why it has its own filter.
• Excluded product categories: Product categories that are not eligible for withdrawal under Article 16 of the Directive, such as digital goods or perishables. When every item in an order belongs to an excluded category, the customer sees a warning but can still submit. The declaration itself is never refused.
• Select Withdrawal Page: The WordPress page that hosts the withdrawal form. The page must contain the [fluent_cart_withdrawal] shortcode. Link to this page prominently, for example with a footer link, so it is easy for customers to find.

Setting Up the Withdrawal Page

The customer-facing form is rendered by a shortcode, so you can place it on any WordPress page.

1. Create a new WordPress page (for example, titled "Right of Withdrawal").
2. Add the <code v-pre>[fluent_cart_withdrawal]</code> shortcode to the page content and publish it.
3. Back in Settings > Withdrawal (EU), choose that page under Select Withdrawal Page.
4. Add a link to the page somewhere persistent, such as your site footer, so customers can always reach it.

The Customer Withdrawal Journey

Once the feature is set up, withdrawing is a short, guided flow for the customer. Here is what they experience from start to finish.

Starting a Withdrawal

A customer who wants to cancel opens their order in the Purchase History area of their account and clicks the Withdraw from contract here link beneath the billing and shipping details. Depending on your Button Placement settings, the same link can also appear on the dashboard or a subscription view.

Step 1: Enter Details

The form opens on the Withdraw from contract page. The customer confirms who they are and which order they mean. No reason is required at any point.

• First name and Last name: (Required) The customer's name.
• Receipt number: (Required) Found on the order confirmation email or receipt.
• Email address: (Required) Where the acknowledgment of receipt will be sent.
• Additional note: (Optional) A free-text note. This appears only when Show the optional note field is enabled, and the customer can leave it blank.

When the details are filled in, the customer clicks Continue.

Step 2: Choose What to Withdraw

If you allow partial revocations and the customer is eligible for the item-selection step, they now choose which items to withdraw. Every item is pre-selected, so a customer who wants to cancel the whole order can simply continue. To keep an item, they uncheck it.

Clicking Continue moves to the review step, and Back to edit details returns to step 1.

Step 3: Review and Confirm

The final step summarizes the whole request so the customer can check it before submitting. It shows the order reference and total, the customer's name, receipt number, email, and note, the items being withdrawn, and an estimated refund.

The customer clicks Confirm withdrawal to submit the declaration.

Acknowledgment of Receipt

As soon as the request is submitted, FluentCart confirms it on screen and emails an acknowledgment of receipt to the address provided. The acknowledgment records the date and time the declaration was received, the customer's name, the receipt number, and a unique reference code. This time-stamped acknowledgment is your proof that the customer exercised their right within the cooling-off period.

The screen makes clear that this acknowledgment confirms receipt of the declaration, and that the store will review the request and follow up on next steps.

Reviewing Requests as an Admin

Every declaration appears against the order it relates to, so you review and decide on it right where the order lives. To find a request:

1. From your FluentCart admin, go to the Orders section.
2. Click the order the customer is withdrawing from to open its order detail page.
3. Scroll to the Withdrawal Requests card on that page, where any request tied to the order is listed.

Each request card shows its current state at a glance:

• Status badge: Pending until you decide, then Accepted or Declined.
• Verification badge: Shows how the request was authenticated. A logged-in account owner shows as Verified User, a guest who matched the receipt number and billing email shows as Verified Mail, and a request that could not be matched shows as Unverified.
• Details: The reference code, the date and time received, the customer's name, the order reference, and any note they left.

To act on a pending request, use the two buttons on the card:

• Accept withdrawal: Approves the request. The customer is emailed automatically with the decision.
• Decline: Rejects the request. The customer is also notified by email.

Once you decide, the card updates to show the outcome, who acted, and when, along with a note that the decision email was sent to the customer.

INFO

Accepting a withdrawal does not issue a refund automatically. Refunds stay manual, so you remain in full control of when and how money is returned. Process the refund from the order itself once you are ready. See Refunds Report for tracking refunded orders.

With this feature configured, your store gives EU customers a clear, lawful way to exercise their right of withdrawal, keeps a verifiable record of every declaration, and leaves the final decision and refund firmly in your hands.