German compliance: Right of “withdrawal” when selling to EU guests

Germany has passed a new law that requires businesses that sell products online to add a clearly visible Withdrawal button to their website so guests can cancel online purchases at any time.

If you sell online in Germany, for example bookings, tickets, memberships and gift cards, you may need to add a button to your website that lets customers formally withdraw from (cancel) their purchase.

ROLLER helps you stay compliant by adding this button to your online checkout.  

How it works

• The button can't be hidden behind a login, so even guests who don’t have an online account with your venue can find and use it.
• When a guest clicks the button, they fill in a short form and include their name, their order number and how they want to be contacted. They then hit a second Confirm button, and at that moment the cancellation is legally valid. 
• Your venue then has to send an email to the guest confirming receipt. But, the email wording can't imply you've already accepted or approved the cancellation, only that you’ve received it.
• It’s your venue’s responsibility to action valid requests within 14 days.  

Before you start

This only applies to products where your guests have a legal right to cancel. Before getting started, make sure you know which products this includes.

How to set up in ROLLER

There are two steps you must complete. First, create your withdrawal form. Second, add it to Venue Manager. Once the form is in Venue Manager, the withdrawal button will appear in the footer of your checkout.

Step one: Build the "withdrawal" form

You can use whichever compliant form provider you like, for example, JotForm, which is a free tool.

The form must have four (4) specific fields:

1. Full Name / Vor- und Nachname. Required. 
2. Booking / Order ID / Buchungs- bzw / Bestellnummer. Required.
3. Email address / E-Mail-Adresse. Required.
4. Reason for withdrawal / Grund des Widerrufs. Optional. A mandatory “reason” field is not permitted under the law.  

The form must be split into two pages:

1. Page one is where your guests fill in their details. This page should have a button labelled Withdraw / Weiter that guests select once they’ve answered the three required questions outlined above.
2. Page two is a confirmation page with a button labelled Confirm Withdraw / Widerruf bestätigen. Using another label, like “submit”, doesn’t meet the legal requirement.

The form must automatically capture the date and time of submission. This needs to be system-generated, not something the guest types in. Form builders, like JotForm, have settings for this.

Once guests submit their form, the “thank you” page should be worded as receipt only. Don't use words like "confirmed" or "approved". You're acknowledging you've received the request, not agreeing to the cancellation.

When a guest submits a form, two emails should send:

1. A receipt to the guest, including all four fields and the date and time of submission.
2. A copy to a monitored inbox at your venue. Keep these emails because they’re a record of all withdrawals that come through your online sales channels. Process valid cancellations within 14 days (refund to original payment method).

Data captured in your form must be stored in the EU, and you'll need a data processing agreement (DPA) in place with your form provider.

Step two: Connect the "withdrawal" form to ROLLER

Once you’ve created your form and have the link, you can add it to Venue Manager. 

1. From Venue Manager, go to Settings > Account > Policy and paste the link in the space provided under EU withdrawal URL.
   
   
    
2. The Vertrag widerrufen link then surfaces in the checkout footer (this applies to both progressive and legacy checkouts).