E-commerce: EU Withdrawal Button + how merchants can opt out (in some cases)

At TecnoTur, the majority of e-commerce sites we have developed have been for our author-clients who are doing direct sales of their audiobooks and ebooks, in addition to Buy directly from the printer affiliate links. We also continue to create and host member websites and pay-per-view websites, but that goes beyond the scope of this article, which is mainly about understanding this new European law, which indeed applies to e-commerce websites located outside of Europe, including the United States, and how to opt out (in some cases). Stemming from EU Directive 2023/2673, this new law obliges online merchants to provide a highly visible and frictionless way for buyers to execute their 14-day legal right to cancel purchases. Its short implementation name for websites is the EU Withdrawal Button. In Spain, it is usually called the Botón de desistimiento de la UE. Ahead, I’ll recap the many benefits of direct sales and then cover how to opt out (if desired) when selling downloadable files like audiobooks and ebooks.

Why would you want to opt out, as an author selling directly?

First, I’ll recap the benefits of direct sales using TecnoTur’s Book Portal or Prolific Website (Portal prolífico o Portal de libro), both for the author and the buyer:

• The author receives a much higher royalty of approximately 97%, instead of a much smaller fraction of that when sharing the revenue with a traditional bookstore.
• Since the author receives such a higher percentage, s/he can offer a much lower price for direct sales and still earn more net profit than when selling via a traditional bookstore.
• The author receives the royalty within a maximum of three business days, as opposed to sixty or ninety days later with the majority of bookstores.
• The author receives the purchaser’s email address, to promote the next audiobook, ebook, print book or other product/service. This benefit of receiving the purchaser’s email address never happens with physical or traditional online bookstores.

Just as we authors are allowed to offer at a lower price for direct sales of audiobooks and ebooks, we are also free to set a No Refunds-No Returns policy for those direct sales. At the end of the policy, we should clearly state that if they want the option to be able to return a digital product, they are free to purchase at a higher price from an online bookstore.

How to opt out of the EU Withdrawal Button (in the case of selling specific digital files)

According to the law, consumers normally lose their right to withdraw once a download begins, but only if they explicitly consented to this at checkout and acknowledged that they waive their 14-day right of withdrawal by downloading immediately. So to opt out, we need to add the appropriate verbage both within our No Refunds-No Returns policy and at the checkout. All TecnoTur subscribers of e-commerce plans (including our Book Portal and Prolific Website) can request this add-on as a courtesy at any time. However, this is not automatic and must be requested by the client.

This courtesy also applies to Privacy and DMCA policies, where the latter mainly applies to our Podcast plan, for those shows that use commercial music under Fair Use, as covered in my recent article: Commercial music in podcasts under Fair Use, with a pre-published DMCA policy & procedure,

When you can’t opt out of the EU Withdrawal Button

To my knowledge, you can’t opt to the EU Withdrawal Button:

• When selling physical goods directly from your website. (This does not apply to Buy directly from the printer affiliate links, since the actual seller of record in that case is the printer, so the printer website would have the responsability to have the EU Withdrawal Button.)
• When selling a long-term membership site.
• When selling a long-term pay-per-view website, where the purchaser can return to watch more videos.

For those cases, TecnoTur offers adding the EU Withdrawal Button as a courtesy for any e-commerce plan, but only if requested by the client. It is not automatic.

This is not legal advice

If you have any doubts, have your favorite attorney, advocate, barrister, counsel, counselor, solicitor, lawyer or legal executive review and approve any policy.

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Comercio electrónico: el Botón de desistimiento de la UE + cómo podemos darnos de baja los comerciantes (en ciertos casos)