Consumer Withdrawal Rights (Fortrydelsesret) for Live-Shopping Purchases in Denmark

Yes — the 14-day withdrawal right applies to live shopping too

When a Danish consumer buys a product through a live-shopping session — whether that's a TikTok Shop LIVE, a Whatnot auction, or an Instagram comment-to-DM workaround that ends on your own webshop — the purchase is legally just an ordinary distance sale. That means the general 14-day withdrawal right under forbrugeraftaleloven (Denmark's Consumer Contracts Act) applies exactly as it would to any standard webshop order. There's no special carve-out for "live" or "shoppable video" formats as such — and, as the auction-exception section below shows, no automatic carve-out for the auction format used by platforms like Whatnot either. This is a separate statutory duty from the one you already know from influencer marketing disclosure rules — but both have to be managed when the sale happens through a creator's content.

When the clock starts, and what the consumer has to do

The 14-day period generally runs from the day the consumer receives the goods — not the day the purchase was made during the livestream. To exercise the withdrawal right, the consumer must give you an unambiguous statement that they're withdrawing from the purchase before the deadline expires; simply refusing the parcel or never collecting it from a pickup point doesn't count. After that, the consumer has a further 14 days to physically return the item.

Your disclosure duty: the standard cancellation form and "durable medium"

Before the contract is concluded, you as the trader must clearly and comprehensibly inform the consumer whether a withdrawal right exists and, if so, its conditions, deadline and procedure — and you must make the legally required standard cancellation form available. Per Forbrugerombudsmanden's (the Danish Consumer Ombudsman's) own guidance, this information has to be given in a way the consumer can save — an email or an attached document is sufficient, but a link to a page on your website is not, on its own. That requirement applies to every form of distance sale, whether the contract was concluded during a livestream, in an ordinary webshop, or over the phone.

If you forget to disclose the withdrawal right

Failing to give this information, or giving it incompletely, doesn't cancel the withdrawal right — it extends it. The deadline keeps running until 14 days after the consumer actually receives the information. If the consumer still hasn't received it after 12 months, the withdrawal right lapses automatically 12 months and 14 days after the goods were delivered. For a brand selling through a TikTok Shop LIVE or a Whatnot session, the practical consequence is plain: a missing or incomplete order confirmation can keep the return window open for up to a year, instead of the normal 14 days.

The auction exception — and why it doesn't rescue a Whatnot session

Section 18(2)(11) of forbrugeraftaleloven exempts "agreements concluded at a public auction" from the withdrawal right, and Section 3 defines a public auction as a sales method where the consumer is, or has the opportunity to be, physically present, through a transparent competitive bidding process run by an auctioneer, and where the bidder is bound to buy if their bid is accepted. That could sound, on first read, like a Whatnot auction — where consumers bid against each other in real time — falls under the exception. It doesn't. The European Commission's own guidance on the Consumer Rights Directive (2021/C 525/01) explicitly states that online auction platforms available to consumers and traders "should not be considered" a public auction within the meaning of the Directive — and that online auctions are therefore fully subject to the withdrawal right. The narrow exception applies only to the classic, physical auction where the consumer can personally attend and bid in person — not an app-based livestream auction. Forbrugerombudsmanden has itself confirmed, against Danish online auction sites, that they must inform consumers of the withdrawal right and provide the standard cancellation form, exactly like any other online store.

The refund deadline

Once the consumer has given notice of withdrawal, you must refund the amount as soon as possible and no later than 14 days after you either receive the goods back, or receive proof that they've been sent back — whichever happens first. That applies regardless of payment method, including when the consumer paid through the platform's own in-app checkout rather than directly to your webshop.

Comparison: withdrawal rights across live-shopping platforms

In practice: giving the disclosure inside an in-app checkout flow

None of the four platforms this Academy already covers (see TikTok Shop LIVE Shopping and live shopping beyond TikTok) has a documented, publicly described standard process for exactly how withdrawal-right information is technically delivered inside their own checkout flow — that wasn't confirmed for this article, and shouldn't be assumed to be handled automatically just because the platform processes the payment. In Make Influence's experience, the safest approach is to treat any order confirmation coming out of an in-app checkout exactly like an order confirmation from your own webshop: make sure it contains, or links to on a durable medium such as email, full information about the withdrawal right and the standard cancellation form — and test the flow yourself as a consumer before you go live with a campaign, rather than assuming the platform handles the legal disclosure duty for you.

Worked example: the cost of a missing order confirmation

The example below is hypothetical and illustrates only how the deadline extension is calculated — it is not a claim about a real case, and not a Make Influence customer case.

A brand runs a TikTok Shop LIVE on 1 September 2026. A consumer receives the goods on 5 September 2026, but the brand's order confirmation contains neither the withdrawal-right information nor the standard cancellation form.

• Normal deadline, had the information been given correctly: 14 days from 5 September 2026 = expires 19 September 2026.
• Actual deadline, because the information is missing: keeps running until 14 days after the consumer actually receives it — if the brand sends correct information on 1 November 2026, the deadline expires 15 November 2026.
• Absolute outer limit, if the brand never sends the information: 12 months and 14 days after delivery = 5 September 2026 + 12 months + 14 days = 19 September 2027.

A single missing line in an order confirmation can, in practice, stretch the return window from 14 days to close to a year.

Common mistakes

• Assuming "live" and "auction" automatically mean no withdrawal right. Only the physical, in-person-accessible public auction is exempt — not an app-based livestream auction like Whatnot.
• Assuming the platform sends the standard cancellation form for you. That isn't confirmed for any of the four platforms in this comparison — test the flow yourself.
• Treating a verbal mention of the withdrawal right during the livestream as sufficient. The information has to be given on a durable medium the consumer can save — a spoken line in a video doesn't meet that bar.
• Assuming a missed disclosure only costs 14 extra days. Without correct disclosure, the deadline can effectively run for up to 12 months and 14 days.

Make Influence's operational perspective

In Make Influence's experience, the withdrawal right is one of the compliance points brands most often overlook when they first start selling through a new channel like TikTok Shop or a livestream auction — because the attention goes to the sale itself and the creator partnership, not the unglamorous part of the checkout flow. Our recommendation is to treat any new sales channel with built-in checkout as a new "webshop" in the legal sense, with the same fixed checklist (disclosure duty, standard form, return process), rather than assuming the rules are different just because the sale happens inside an app during a livestream.

FAQ

Does the withdrawal right apply if the consumer bought the item during a livestream instead of an ordinary webshop?

Yes. Legally it's still a distance sale, and the standard 14-day withdrawal right under forbrugeraftaleloven applies in full, regardless of whether the purchase was made during a TikTok Shop LIVE, a Whatnot session, or via an Instagram workaround that ends on your webshop.

Is a Whatnot auction exempt from the withdrawal right because it's an auction?

No. The exception in forbrugeraftaleloven Section 18(2)(11) applies only to the classic, physical "public auction" where the consumer can personally attend and bid. The European Commission's own guidance on the Consumer Rights Directive clarifies that online auction platforms fall outside that exception and are therefore fully subject to the withdrawal right.

What happens if we forget to disclose the withdrawal right during a live session?

The deadline extends until 14 days after the consumer actually receives the information — and if it's never given, the withdrawal right lapses automatically 12 months and 14 days after the goods were delivered. Omitting the disclosure is far from risk-free.

Who has the disclosure duty if a creator sells our product as an affiliate in a TikTok Shop LIVE?

It's the trader in the TikTok Shop transaction — typically your brand, as the owner of the product and the TikTok Shop storefront — that holds the disclosure duty and the responsibility for the standard form, not the creator, who's simply promoting the product for a commission.

Do we have to provide a physical copy of the standard cancellation form?

No, but the information has to be given on a "durable medium" the consumer can save — typically an email or an attached document. A link alone to a page on your website isn't sufficient, per Forbrugerombudsmanden's own guidance.