Returning an Online Purchase in Italy: The 14 Day Right of Withdrawal (Diritto di Recesso)

Buying something online from an Italian seller comes with a built in cooling off period: the diritto di recesso, the right of withdrawal, lets a consumer cancel most distance purchases within 14 days of delivery for any reason at all. This page covers how that window works, how to actually use it, and the goods it does not cover.

Information verified on 21 July 2026. This page provides general legal information and does not constitute legal advice for an individual situation.

The 14 day window, and when it becomes 30

A contratto a distanza, a distance contract, is any contract concluded between a business seller and a consumer through an organized system of remote selling, without the two being physically present together, using only means of remote communication up to and including the conclusion of the contract itself (art. 45, Codice del consumo). An ordinary online purchase fits this definition directly.

For that kind of purchase, art. 52, Codice del consumo, gives the consumer 14 days to withdraw, running from the day the buyer, or someone the buyer designates, physically takes possession of the goods. No justification is required, and no penalty applies. Where an order covers several goods delivered separately, the 14 days run from delivery of the last one.

The window extends to 30 days in a narrower set of cases: a contract signed during an unsolicited visit by the seller to the consumer's own home, or during an organized excursion set up with the purpose or effect of promoting or selling products to consumers. Both settings carry a recognized higher pressure risk, which is why the law gives the buyer more time to reconsider.

If the seller never told you about this right

A seller has to inform the consumer of the right of withdrawal before the contract is concluded. If that disclosure never happens, the withdrawal period does not simply stay at 14 days; it extends by up to 12 months beyond the original deadline (art. 53, Codice del consumo).

If the seller gets around to giving proper notice at some point during those 12 months, the clock resets: the withdrawal period then ends 14 days, or 30 days in the unsolicited visit and organized excursion cases, after the day the consumer actually receives that notice. In practice this means a seller cannot simply skip the disclosure and assume the buyer's right quietly expired after 2 weeks.

How to actually exercise it

Withdrawing is a matter of telling the seller, clearly, before the deadline. Art. 54, Codice del consumo, gives three equivalent ways to do it: use the standard withdrawal form set out in the code, use an equivalent electronic form the seller may offer on its own website, or send any other unambiguous written statement of the decision to withdraw. Where the seller offers an online form, it has to confirm receipt of the withdrawal to the consumer on a durable medium, such as an email, without delay.

Simply refusing a delivery, going silent, or not collecting a package does not, on its own, satisfy this requirement. The consumer bears the burden of proving the withdrawal was properly communicated, so keeping a copy of whatever form or message was sent, and when, is worth doing.

Getting your money back, and sending the goods back

Once the seller is informed of the withdrawal, art. 56, Codice del consumo, requires a full refund of everything the consumer paid, including the standard delivery charge, within 14 days. The refund normally has to go back through the same payment method the consumer originally used. The seller is allowed to withhold the refund until the goods are physically received back, or until the consumer shows proof they were shipped, whichever comes first, so a fast refund in practice depends on sending the item back promptly too.

On the consumer's side, art. 57, Codice del consumo, requires the goods to be sent back, or handed to someone the seller authorizes to receive them, within 14 days of notifying the withdrawal. The consumer generally pays only the direct cost of that return shipment, unless the seller agreed in advance to cover it or failed to disclose that the cost would fall on the consumer. The consumer can be charged for a reduction in the value of the goods, but only for handling beyond what was reasonably needed to check the item's nature, characteristics and how it works, the same kind of check a shopper could do in a physical store before buying. If the seller never disclosed the right of withdrawal at all, no such deduction applies.

What cannot be returned this way

Art. 59, Codice del consumo, lists a set of standard exceptions to the right of withdrawal. The ones consumers run into most often when shopping online are goods made or clearly personalized to the buyer's own specifications, goods that risk spoiling or expiring quickly, sealed goods that cannot be returned for hygiene or health protection reasons once the seal has been broken after delivery, sealed audio or video recordings or sealed software once opened after delivery, and digital content supplied on a non material medium, such as a downloaded file or a streamed service, once its delivery has already started with the consumer's prior express consent and acknowledgement of losing the withdrawal right.

For example, a made to order piece of furniture cut to a customer's own dimensions falls outside the right of withdrawal under the custom goods exception, while an off the shelf sofa bought in the same order does not, since it was never personalized to that specific buyer.

For the related question of what happens when the product itself turns out to be defective rather than simply unwanted, see our page on the legal guarantee on consumer goods in Italy. For the wider landscape of Italian law this site covers, see our Italy hub.