Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000

• Who the supplier is, and their address (if payment is made up front)
• A description of the goods or service
• The cost, inclusive of any tax
• Any delivery charge
• How payment should be made and how the goods or services will be delivered
• Notification of the right of cancellation (Regulations 10, 11 12 and 13)[3]
• Communication costs for forming the contract (for example, the cost of a premium-rate telephone number)
• How long the contract offer is valid for
• How long the contract will last, if it is not a one-off performance

This information must be clear and comprehensible.[2] Under Regulation 8[4] all this information must also be given to the consumer in a durable or storable medium along with all terms and conditions, a geographical address and, if the contract could last over a year, the conditions for taking contractual action.

The seller must perform the contract within thirty days of its being made.[5] If a supplier cannot meet the contract, he must within another thirty days pay back any money and return any other property that the consumer used to secure the contract, and tell the consumer that he has done so.[6]

If the supplier has provided all the information to be communicated before contract formation, the consumer has an automatic right to cancel and rescind a contract at any time from its formation until seven working days after the goods are delivered; or for service contracts, seven working days after the contract is formed (which might be before the service was to have been performed).[7] From 13 June 2014 The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 replaced the 2000 Regulations and in particular incorporate now a 14-day cancellation period, not seven days.

Where the supplier has not provided the consumer with all the required information, the consumer has an automatic right to rescind the contract within three months and seven days of delivery of the goods, or of formation of the contract (service contracts).[8] The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 replacing the 2000 regulations changed such 3-month period to 12 months

Regulation 14[9] obliges the supplier to reimburse the consumer within thirty days of the consumer giving notice of cancellation (and to reimburse any delivery costs). Regulation 17[10] obliges the consumer to take reasonable care of goods and deliver them when the supplier comes to collect them.

Where there is an agreement that the consumer will return the goods by post, it is at the consumer's cost except if the goods are faulty or not as described as per the Sale of Goods Act 1979 in which case the supplier reimburses both the delivery and return costs

Regulation 21[11] defines "Fraudulent use of a payment card". If a consumer's payment card is charged fraudulently, the money must be paid back to the consumer by the card issuer. The Consumer Credit Act 1974 makes a joint and several obligation on both the seller and the card issuer to refund money

If goods are sent to a consumer without a contract asking for them, the "recipient may [...] use, deal with, or dispose of the goods as if they were an unconditional gift to him"[12] and "[t]he rights of the sender to the goods are extinguished".[13] This is intended to prevent companies purporting to demand payment for goods a consumer receives unexpectedly. This provision amends the Unsolicited Goods Act 1971, which defines goods only as unsolicited goods if they have been deliberately sent to the recipient with the intention of them being used.

No contractual term can limit or exclude the legal liability of a supplier for the provisions of the Act if the contractual term is inconsistent with consumer protection legislation.