Selling to EU Buyers? Your Checkout Just Learned Some Law
EU consumer law got real teeth this summer: a mandatory withdrawal function applies since June 19, 2026, the 14-day cooling-off right stretches to 12 months if you never disclose it, and a July CJEU ruling ended the "tick here to waive your refund" shortcut for ongoing digital services. GoCushy checkouts just gained a legal-notice block — live on our own founding checkout, settable on yours today — with the durable-medium receipt repeat handled automatically. Not legal advice; here's what changed and what we built.
If you sell digital products to EU or UK buyers, three things changed around you this year — quietly, and with real consequences. We just shipped the first piece of GoCushy's answer, and it's live on our own founding checkout right now. Fair warning before the details: I'm a founder, not your lawyer, and none of this is legal advice — it's what we learned building for our own compliance, shared plainly.
What changed in EU law
- The "withdrawal button" is mandatory now. Since June 19, 2026, online checkouts selling to EU consumers must offer an easily accessible withdrawal function — and it binds non-EU sellers who target EU buyers too.
- Silence is expensive. The 14-day cooling-off right is old news; what's less known is that if the required withdrawal information is never given, the window stretches to 12 months. A missing paragraph turns a two-week obligation into a year-long one.
- The waiver checkbox died in July. On July 9, 2026 the CJEU ruled (the Sky Österreich case) that for ongoing digital services — memberships, subscriptions, anything with continuing access — a "you waive your withdrawal right" checkbox does not extinguish the 14-day right. Withdrawal survives, with pro-rata payment for what was used.
What we shipped
Every GoCushy checkout now supports a legal notice block: seller-configured small print rendered under the pay button — before payment, where disclosure duties live — and repeated automatically in the buyer's receipt email, which is the "durable medium" confirmation the rules ask for. It's plain text, length-capped, and escaped, like every GoCushy checkout block: your AI can set it, and neither of you can break the page with it.
We're our own first customer. The founding checkout now tells EU and UK buyers exactly what they're entitled to: a 14-day right of withdrawal, no reason needed — email us, full refund within 14 days to the original payment method. That's a promise we run manually today and are turning into a one-click flow next.
To set yours: it's the legal_note field in your checkout blocks — per offer, or account-wide as a seller default. Tell your agent what your policy is and it writes the block; the developer docs have the field reference.
What's honestly next
A notice is the floor, not the ceiling. What we're building next, in order: a real in-account withdrawal flow for buyers (the "button" the regulation describes), consent capture at checkout where the digital-content exception genuinely applies, and pro-rata refund support for subscriptions — because after Sky Österreich, that's the only honest design for recurring offers. When those ship, they'll ship for every merchant, with compliant defaults, the same way the notice did.
Sell to Europe like you mean it.
Real tax at checkout, compliant sequential invoices, and now EU disclosure built in. Founding: $195 one-time, 0% platform fees for life — closes Saturday, August 1, 2026 at 11:59pm ET.
See the founding offerThis post is not legal advice. Your obligations depend on what and where you sell.