Distance Selling in Cyprus: The Fourteen Day Right to Withdraw

Most disputes about an online return in Cyprus are not really about the product. They are about whether a right existed, when it expired, who pays the postage, and what the seller was allowed to keep. All four are answered by the Consumer Protection Law of 2021, Law 112(I)/2021, whose Part IV applies to a distance contract and to a contract concluded away from business premises, and which is not displaced by anything the seller writes into its own terms.

That Part is where this subject now lives. Section 74 of the 2021 Law repealed the Consumer Rights Law of 2013 outright, together with the unfair terms, unfair commercial practices, price indication and consumer guarantees legislation, and gathered all of it into a single statute. A returns policy that still cites the 2013 Law is citing something that no longer exists, and the section numbers in it are not the ones a court or the Consumer Protection Service will be reading.

This is written for both sides of that argument. A buyer needs to know what the right actually is before demanding it. A seller needs to know which of its own habits, a pre-ticked box at checkout, a premium-rate helpline, a returns policy copied from another site, quietly create liability.

The fourteen days, and when they start

Unless one of the exceptions in section 27 applies, section 20(1) gives the consumer fourteen days to withdraw from a distance or off-premises contract without giving any reason and without any charge beyond the obligations in sections 24(2) and 25. There is no requirement to show that the goods were faulty, and no requirement to justify the change of mind.

Section 20(1A) adds a longer period that the 2013 Law did not have. Where the contract was concluded during an unsolicited visit by the trader to the consumer's home, or during an excursion organised by a trader with the aim or effect of promoting or selling products to consumers, the period is thirty days. That is the doorstep sale and the coach trip, and it is precisely the situation in which a buyer is least likely to know they have any right at all.

Section 20(2) decides when the clock starts, and it is not the same date for everything. For a services contract the period runs from the day the contract was concluded. For a sale it runs from the day the consumer, or a third party they indicated other than the carrier, acquires physical possession of the goods, which is the point most often misstated in a returns policy written around the order date.

The twelve months a seller invites by saying nothing

The provision that turns a paperwork failure into a commercial one is section 21(1). Where the trader has not given the consumer the information about the right of withdrawal that section 17(1)(h) requires, the withdrawal period does not simply continue: it ends twelve months after the end of the original period.

Section 21(2) provides the cure, and it works only until that year is up. If the trader supplies the missing information within those twelve months, the period ends fourteen days after the consumer receives it. A seller who discovers the omission has an obvious step to take, and taking it late is still better than not taking it.

There is a second consequence in section 25(2), and it is easy to miss. A consumer is liable for any diminished value of goods resulting from handling beyond what was necessary to establish their nature, characteristics and functioning. But where the trader failed to give the section 17(1)(h) notice, the consumer is not liable in any case for that diminished value. The same omission therefore extends the right and removes the seller's main defence about the condition of what comes back.

How the right is exercised

Under section 22(1) the consumer informs the trader of the decision to withdraw before the period expires, either using the model withdrawal form set out in Part B of Annex I to the Law or by any other unequivocal statement. A telephone call can satisfy that, which is why a seller should keep a record of calls about orders, and why a buyer should follow one with an email.

What the seller owes back, and when

Section 24(1) requires the trader to reimburse every payment received from the consumer, including where applicable the costs of delivery, without undue delay and in any event within fourteen days of being informed of the decision to withdraw. The refund must use the same means of payment the consumer used for the original transaction, unless the consumer has expressly agreed otherwise, and the consumer must not incur any fee as a result of the refund. A credit note is not a refund unless the buyer agreed to one.

Two qualifications sit alongside it. Under section 24(2) the trader need not reimburse supplementary delivery costs where the consumer expressly chose a delivery method other than the cheapest standard delivery the trader offers: the standard cost comes back, the premium for next-day delivery does not. Under section 24(3), unless the trader has offered to collect the goods itself, it may withhold the refund on a sale of goods until it receives them back, or until the consumer supplies evidence of having sent them, whichever happens first.

What the buyer owes, and who pays the postage

Section 25(1) requires the consumer, unless the trader offered to collect the goods, to send them back without undue delay and in any event within fourteen days of communicating the decision to withdraw. Sending them before that period expires is enough; they need not have arrived.

The consumer bears only the direct cost of returning the goods, and not even that where the trader agreed to bear it or failed to tell the consumer that the cost would fall on them. A returns page that is silent on postage therefore leaves the seller paying it. For an off-premises contract where the goods were delivered to the consumer's home at the time the contract was concluded, the trader collects them at its own expense if they are goods that by their nature cannot normally be returned by post.

Where the consumer asked for a service to begin during the withdrawal period and then withdraws, section 25(3) requires payment of an amount proportionate to what was supplied up to the moment of withdrawal, calculated on the total price agreed in the contract, or on the market value of what was supplied where that total price is excessive.

Where the right does not arise at all

Section 27 lists the cases, and three of them decide most online arguments.

• Goods made to the consumer's specifications or clearly personalised are outside the right, under paragraph (c). So is the supply of goods liable to deteriorate or expire quickly, and of sealed goods unsuitable for return on health or hygiene grounds which were unsealed after delivery.
• Sealed computer software, sound or video recordings unsealed after delivery are outside it under paragraph (i).
• Digital content not supplied on a tangible medium is outside it under paragraph (m) only where performance began with the consumer's prior express consent and their acknowledgement that they thereby lose the right of withdrawal. A fully performed service is outside it under paragraph (a) on the same two conditions.

The last two matter more than the list suggests. Both depend on something the checkout has to collect and record at the time, and a seller relying on them without that consent and acknowledgement has neither the exception nor, if the section 17(1)(h) notice was also missing, the fourteen day limit.

Three provisions a seller should read before its terms are drafted

Section 32 deals with pre-ticked boxes. Before the consumer is bound, the trader must seek express consent to any additional payment beyond the remuneration agreed for the trader's main contractual obligation. Where the trader has not obtained express consent but inferred it by using default options that the consumer must reject in order to avoid the payment, the consumer is entitled to a refund of that payment. Insurance and extended warranties added by default at checkout are the everyday examples.

Section 31(1) deals with the helpline. Where the trader operates a telephone line for contact about contracts concluded, the consumer, when calling, is not obliged to pay more than the basic rate for the line. A premium-rate number for order enquiries is not a revenue stream; it is a breach.

Section 28(7) deals with risk in transit, which is where a seller most often assumes the buyer's problem is the buyer's. Risk passes to the consumer when they, or a third party indicated by them other than the carrier, take physical possession of the goods. It passes on delivery to the carrier only where the consumer instructed that carrier and the trader did not offer that option, and even then without prejudice to the consumer's rights against the carrier. Goods lost or damaged on the way to the buyer are, in the ordinary case, still the seller's risk.

Questions we are asked

This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal advice. Laws and their application can change, and individual circumstances differ. For advice on your own matter, contact Klitos Platis at klitos@kleanthousplatis.com or telephone +357 22 680 330.

Klitos Platis

Advocate, Partner

Kleanthous & Platis LLC, Nicosia · Published 22 August 2026