This article is general guidance, not legal advice. Consumer law varies by country and depends on how your specific marketplace operates. If you serve customers in the EU or EEA, confirm your obligations with a qualified lawyer in the relevant market.
If you want to jump to the specific things that you need to consider to implement this in your marketplace, go to this section of the article.
What is the right of withdrawal?
The right of withdrawal is a consumer protection rule in the European Union and the European Economic Area. It comes from the EU Consumer Rights Directive (2011/83/EU), and it gives consumers a 14-day cooling-off period to cancel a purchase made at a distance, for example online, without giving any reason and, in most cases, without any penalty.
In short:
The right applies to distance contracts (purchases made online, by phone, or otherwise without the buyer and seller meeting in person) and to off-premises contracts.
The 14 days start from the day the goods are delivered, or from the day a service contract is concluded.
The consumer does not have to explain why they are withdrawing.
Once a consumer withdraws, they are entitled to a refund within 14 days.
The seller must inform the consumer about this right before the purchase. If they don't, the cooling-off period can be extended by up to 12 months.
An easy "right of withdrawal" function (button) needs to be easily accessible to the consumer.
This right applies to consumers who live in the EU or EEA. It can apply even if your business is based elsewhere, as long as you are selling to consumers in those markets.
Does it apply to my marketplace?
This is the most important question, and the answer depends on who is selling to whom on your platform. The right of withdrawal is a business-to-consumer (B2C) protection, so it hinges on whether the seller is a professional trader and the buyer is a consumer.
There are three common situations:
Your providers are businesses selling to consumers (B2C). If the sellers on your marketplace are professional traders and your buyers are consumers, the right of withdrawal generally applies to those sales. Each provider is the trader responsible for honoring it.
Your providers are private individuals (C2C or peer-to-peer). If a private person sells to another private person, the right of withdrawal generally does not apply, because the seller is not a trader. Many peer-to-peer rental and resale marketplaces fall into this category.
You sell directly to consumers. If your marketplace company is itself the seller of the goods or services, the right of withdrawal applies to you directly.
Two things are worth keeping in mind. First, marketplaces are often mixed, with both professional and private sellers, so the right can apply to some transactions and not others. Second, even when individual providers are the traders, you as the operator typically still play a role in communicating the policy and processing refunds through your platform.
What are the exceptions?
Even in a clear B2C sale, the right of withdrawal does not apply to everything. Common exceptions under the directive include:
Goods made to order or clearly personalized for the customer.
Perishable goods, such as food and flowers.
Sealed goods that can't be returned for health or hygiene reasons once unsealed, such as cosmetics.
Time-specific services such as accommodation, transport, car rental, event tickets, and catering tied to a particular date.
Digital content delivered online once the consumer has agreed to start and acknowledged they are giving up the right.
Services that have been fully performed, where the consumer agreed to start immediately and accepted losing the right.
This is not the complete list, and the exact wording matters. The full set of exceptions is in Article 16 of the directive.
What is the new "withdrawal function (button)" requirement?
A recent update to EU law, Directive (EU) 2023/2673, adds a new obligation for traders selling to EU consumers online. As of 19 June 2026, where a contract is concluded through an online interface, the consumer must be able to withdraw just as easily as they signed up, through a clear, easy-to-find withdrawal function on the same interface.
In practice, this means:
A prominently labeled control, such as a "Withdraw from contract here" button or link.
Availability throughout the 14-day cooling-off period.
The consumer's ability to identify which contract they are withdrawing from.
An acknowledgment of the withdrawal on a durable medium, such as an email confirming the date and time.
If your providers (or you) are traders selling to EU consumers online, this requirement is relevant to your marketplace. Because it is an EU directive, the exact implementation can vary slightly between member states.
How do I handle a withdrawal in Sharetribe?
Sharetribe gives you the tools to communicate your policy and to process refunds when a consumer exercises the right. The practical steps are:
State your policy clearly. Use the Pages to publish your withdrawal terms, for example within your Terms of Service or on a dedicated returns and cancellations page. Make sure buyers see the relevant information before they purchase.
If you have multiple types of sellers, businesses and consumers, create a dedicated listing type for business sellers, where they can provide more information through listing fields. In particular, the directive requires them to state their address, contact information, and the right of withdrawal clearly.
Change your email texts, when relevant, to communicate the right of withdrawal in purchase listing types. You can use generic wording like: "If you have the right of withdrawal, you can cancel the purchase within the next 14 days by going to the marketplace and clicking the cancellation button".
If you think the dispute button is not prominent enough or are not using the purchase listing type. Add a link to your top bar or footer that anyone can follow to cancel a transaction.
The purchase listing type already includes a dispute action, which can be considered a "withdrawal function".
However, according to the law the link should be prominent and easy to find, so adding it to the top bar and footer can save you some trouble in case someone complains.
The link should direct people to an easy-to-fill form, built for example with typeform, where a user can ask for the cancellation of their order.
Make sure you send a confirmation email to the consumer after they fill out the form. The dispute action sends this confirmation email immediately.
Process the refund by cancelling the transaction. When a consumer withdraws within their cooling-off period, you can cancel the transaction in Console, which initiates a refund through Stripe back to the buyer. See How to cancel a transaction and issue a refund for the exact steps.
Mind the transaction timing. A transaction can only be cancelled before it is marked complete. By default, Calendar booking transactions complete 2 days after the booking ends, and Purchase transactions complete 14 days after the provider marks them as "Shipped". This process works well for non withdrawal transactions, but if you have withdrawal transactions you might need to cover some late refunds requests or make sure that the provider refunds the money directly.
Sharetribe supports full refunds out of the box. Partial refunds aren't supported by default and require code customization, so plan your policy accordingly. By customizing your marketplace with code you can have better control over this whole user experience.
What about other countries?
"Right of withdrawal" is specifically EU and EEA terminology. Many other countries have comparable but different cooling-off or distance-selling rules. The UK, for example, has its own consumer contract regulations. If you operate across multiple markets, treat each one separately rather than assuming the EU rules apply everywhere.
Still have questions about setting this up on your marketplace? Reach out to our team from the chat widget in your Console.