Consumer cancellation clause

What is a consumer cancellation clause and when should you use it?

Consumer protection laws provide that you must advise anyone who is buying as a consumer (namely someone buying for purposes wholly or mainly outside of a trade, craft, profession or business) of their right to a 14-day cooling off period.

If you don’t include these rights, the consumer can cancel the contract up to 12 months afterwards.

If you are selling services to consumers and the template you are using does not have this wording in there or is expressed to be business to business only, you can add the wording in this template to your terms and then use the template for consumers.

This template should be used for the supply of services only.

There are a variety of special rules which apply to doing business with consumers, particularly when it comes to the terms and conditions contained in consumer contracts.

The other thing to be conscious of is that you need to be more ‘reasonable’ in your contracts with consumers than you do for contracts with other businesses, particularly in relation to the limitation on liability clause.

Check out our guide on doing business with consumers to find out more about consumer rights.