The rules for distance selling in the United States are not one law but several. When you buy something without being in the same room as the seller — online, by phone, through an app, or by mail — you’re covered by a patchwork of federal rules that govern when the seller must ship, what they have to disclose about price, how subscriptions can bill you, what happens if goods you never ordered show up, and how you dispute a charge that went wrong. There is no general federal right to change your mind and return an online purchase, which surprises most shoppers and matters more than any other single point below.
The 30-Day Shipping Deadline
The FTC’s Mail, Internet, or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule requires a seller who takes orders remotely to have a reasonable basis for believing they can ship within any timeframe they advertise. If the seller doesn’t state a shipping timeframe, they must be able to ship within 30 days of receiving a properly completed order.1eCFR. 16 CFR 435.2 – Mail, Internet, or Telephone Order Sales A properly completed order means the seller has your payment and the information needed to fill the order. The clock starts when the order is received, not when payment clears.
If the seller realizes they can’t meet the deadline, staying quiet is not an option. They have to notify you and offer a choice: agree to the delay or cancel for a full refund.2Federal Trade Commission. Business Guide to the FTC’s Mail, Internet, or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule The notice must give a revised shipping date if the seller can reasonably estimate one, or say plainly that they can’t.
The length of the delay changes the default. If the new date is 30 days or less past the original deadline, your silence counts as consent. If the new date is more than 30 days out, or if the seller can’t estimate a date at all, your silence counts as cancellation, and the seller must refund you automatically unless you affirmatively agree to keep waiting.1eCFR. 16 CFR 435.2 – Mail, Internet, or Telephone Order Sales A cancellation triggers a prompt refund of every dollar paid for the unshipped merchandise. Store credit or a voucher is not a substitute for returning your money.2Federal Trade Commission. Business Guide to the FTC’s Mail, Internet, or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule
You Do Not Have a Federal Right to Return an Online Purchase
This is the point most shoppers get wrong. No federal law gives you a general right to send back an item you ordered online just because you changed your mind. The FTC’s Cooling-Off Rule, which does provide a three-business-day cancellation window for some sales, only applies to purchases made at your home, your workplace, or a seller’s temporary location such as a hotel room or trade show booth. It does not cover sales made entirely online, by mail, or by telephone.3Federal Trade Commission. Buyer’s Remorse: The FTC’s Cooling-Off Rule May Help
Your ability to return an online purchase depends on the seller’s own policy. Large retailers often offer generous windows voluntarily, but they are not required to at the federal level. State law fills part of the gap. A number of states require retailers to post their return policy clearly, and in many of those states a seller who posts no policy must accept returns within a set period, often 20 to 30 days, for a full cash refund. Restocking fees follow the same logic: no federal cap, but a fee that wasn’t disclosed before the sale risks running afoul of state consumer protection laws and the FTC’s general ban on deceptive practices.
Hidden Fees and What Must Be Disclosed Before You Buy
Federal law doesn’t hand online sellers a checklist of items they must display. Instead, Section 5 of the FTC Act makes any unfair or deceptive act or practice unlawful.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S. Code 45 – Unfair Methods of Competition Unlawful A seller who hides material information about what you’re buying, what you’ll actually pay, or who they are is violating federal law even without a specific disclosure statute.
The practical rule from FTC guidance: any cost you wouldn’t reasonably expect — shipping fees, service charges, recurring charges — has to be disclosed clearly before you complete the purchase. Burying that information in a linked terms-of-use page does not count. Drip pricing, where the advertised price climbs as you move through checkout, is an enforcement priority for the same reason.
Subscriptions and Auto-Renewals
Recurring charges have their own federal rule. The Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act makes it illegal to charge you for anything sold online through a negative option feature unless the seller clearly discloses all material terms before collecting your billing information, gets your express informed consent before charging you, and gives you a simple way to stop the charges.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S. Code 8403 – Negative Option Marketing on the Internet
A negative option feature is any setup where the seller treats your silence as permission to charge you. Free trials that convert into paid subscriptions, automatic renewals you didn’t specifically agree to, and continuity plans that keep sending products until you cancel all fall inside the definition. FTC guidance is explicit that canceling must be no more difficult than signing up.6Federal Trade Commission. Bringing Dark Patterns to Light Letting you subscribe with one click but forcing you to call a phone line during business hours to cancel is almost certainly a violation. So is routing cancellations through a series of retention offers designed to wear you down.
If Something Shows Up That You Never Ordered
If a company ships you merchandise you didn’t order and then sends a bill, you can keep it and owe nothing. Federal law treats unordered merchandise as a gift. You may keep it, use it, throw it out, or do whatever you like with it, and the sender cannot demand payment or send collection notices.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 39 U.S. Code 3009 – Mailing of Unordered Merchandise You are not required to return the item or to pay for shipping it back.8Federal Trade Commission. What To Do if You’re Billed for Things You Never Got, or You Get Unordered Products Two narrow exceptions apply: items clearly marked as free samples, and charitable organizations that mail items while asking for donations.
Who Pays if the Package Is Lost or Stolen
The Uniform Commercial Code, adopted in some form by every state, splits shipping risk into two categories. In a shipment contract, the seller’s obligation ends when they hand the goods to the carrier, and the buyer bears the risk from that moment. In a destination contract, the seller bears the risk until the goods actually reach the buyer. Courts strongly presume that consumer online purchases are shipment contracts unless the seller explicitly promises delivery to your door.
That matters most when a package is marked delivered but you never received it. Under a strict shipment-contract analysis, the seller can argue they’ve done their part. In practice, most large retailers absorb these losses because refusing costs them more in customer service than it saves. Smaller sellers may not. When the legal default cuts against you, the practical remedies are filing a claim with the carrier or disputing the charge through your card issuer.
Disputing a Charge When the Seller Won’t Fix It
When a distance sale goes wrong and the seller won’t make it right, your payment method matters. Credit cards and debit cards carry different rights, and the gap between them is larger than most people realize.
Credit Cards
The Fair Credit Billing Act lets you dispute billing errors on a credit card, including charges for goods that never arrived or that arrived materially different from what was described. You must send a written dispute to your card issuer within 60 days of the statement showing the charge. The letter needs your name, account number, the amount you believe is wrong, and why.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S. Code 1666 – Correction of Billing Errors
The issuer must acknowledge the dispute in writing within 30 days and resolve it within two billing cycles, up to a maximum of 90 days.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S. Code 1666 – Correction of Billing Errors While it investigates, the issuer cannot try to collect the disputed amount, charge interest on it, or report it to credit bureaus as delinquent. If the dispute is valid, the issuer must correct the error and refund any finance charges tied to it.
Debit Cards
Debit card protections are weaker in a way that hits your finances directly. Under the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, you still have 60 days from the statement date to report an error, but the bank’s initial investigation window is only 10 business days. If it can’t finish in that time, it may extend to 45 calendar days, but only if it provisionally credits your account while it works.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S. Code 1693f – Error Resolution
The real difference is where the money sits during the dispute. With a credit card, the issuer paid the merchant, and you’re arguing about a line item on a bill. With a debit card, the money already left your account, and you’re waiting to get it back. For large purchases or unfamiliar sellers, paying by credit card gives you meaningfully stronger protection.
Penalties and What Actually Gets You Your Money Back
The FTC enforces the Mail Order Rule and other consumer protection statutes through civil penalty actions, with penalties adjusted for inflation each year.11Federal Register. Adjustments to Civil Penalty Amounts Because each unfilled order or deceptive transaction can count as a separate violation, a seller running a large operation with systemic problems can face significant liability. State attorneys general also enforce consumer protection laws, and many states have their own statutes prohibiting unfair and deceptive practices, some of which let individual consumers sue and recover double or triple damages.
For an individual buyer, though, the most reliable tool is usually not a government agency. Agencies focus on patterns of abuse. An $80 order that never arrived isn’t going to trigger an FTC investigation, but a chargeback through your card issuer can return the money in weeks. Learn the shipping rule, the subscription rule, and the dispute rule, and you have the practical protection that the patchwork of distance selling rules actually delivers.