Withdrawal button in Austria: mandatory since 1 October 2026

Yes: since 1 October 2026, if your shop sells to consumers in Austria, it has to give them a withdrawal button. Your customer clicks “Vertrag widerrufen”, fills in a short form, confirms with “Widerruf bestätigen” and immediately gets an email with the date and time. It applies to every order placed from 1 October.

An example: a customer in Linz buys a pair of trainers on a Friday, tries them on on Monday and wants to send them back. Until now she would have emailed you. Now your shop has to give her a button to do it herself, and confirm receipt on the spot.

Who needs the button?

Any shop that sells to Austrian consumers through a website or an app. The rule is a new article in Austria’s distance selling act, § 13a FAGG, and it is the Austrian version of the same European directive that already applies in Germany.

Shops that sell only to businesses are out, and so are sales closed by phone or by email, and contracts that carry no right of withdrawal at all. Be careful with that last one: excluding the right across the board rarely ends well.

The right itself does not change: your customer still has fourteen days, with no reason needed. The only new thing is how she exercises it.

Withdrawing has to be as easy as buying. That is the whole rule in one line.

What does the button have to look like?

• Labelled “Vertrag widerrufen” (“withdraw from contract”) or something equally clear. The safest choice is the wording of the law.
• Visible and easy to find, for example in the header or footer of every page, on mobile too.
• No login required. Someone who bought as a guest does not even have an account.
• Available for the whole period, not just for a few days after the purchase.

A PDF form to print out is not enough: your customer has to be able to withdraw on the website itself.

How does withdrawing with the button work?

1. She clicks “Vertrag widerrufen”.
2. She fills in a short form: her name, the order details and the email address where she wants the confirmation. She may give a reason, but you cannot require one.
3. She confirms with “Widerruf bestätigen” (“confirm withdrawal”). That click is the declaration.
4. She immediately gets an email with what she declared and the date and time it reached you.

The fourth step is the hardest to improvise. A “thanks for your message” is not enough: the email has to say what she declared and when it reached you.

And the deadline counts from when she sends it. If she clicks at 23:50 on the last day, she is in time, even if you only read it the next morning.

What do you need to add to your withdrawal information?

Adding the button is half the job. The other half: before the purchase you have to tell customers that the function exists and where it is. The official model withdrawal information has a sentence for this, where you fill in the address of your form. In your German texts it reads:

„Sie können Ihr Widerrufsrecht auch online unter [address] ausüben. Wenn Sie diese Online-Funktion nutzen, übermitteln wir Ihnen auf einem dauerhaften Datenträger (z. B. durch eine E-Mail) unverzüglich eine Eingangsbestätigung mit Informationen zum Inhalt der Widerrufserklärung sowie dem Datum und der Uhrzeit ihres Eingangs.“

(“You can also exercise your right of withdrawal online at [address]. If you use this function, we will send you without delay, on a durable medium such as an email, an acknowledgement of receipt with the content of your declaration and the date and time we received it.”)

This is the part most often forgotten, because it is not done in the shop but in your legal texts. If yours come from a generator or a law firm, check that you already have the new version.

What is different from Germany?

In Germany the same obligation has applied since 19 June 2026. If you sell in both countries, one button covers you in both. There are three differences worth knowing:

• The date. Germany since 19 June; Austria for orders from 1 October 2026.
• The word. Austrian law calls withdrawal “Rücktritt”, but it means the same as “Widerruf”. In Germany, on the other hand, they are two different things. With “Vertrag widerrufen” you are covered in both.
• What a mistake costs. In Austria, a fine of up to €1,450, and consumer associations and competitors can also take you to court. The waves of cease-and-desist letters that German shops suffer are, for now, unknown in Austria.

Whatever you already have right for Germany works in Austria. What the button has to look like across the EU is covered in The withdrawal button: mandatory since 19 June 2026. And if you sell in both countries, since 27 September 2026 the product page also has to show the EU legal guarantee notice.

Will PrestaShop’s merchandise returns do?

No. PrestaShop comes with merchandise returns and they are easy to confuse with this, but they only work inside the customer account, they have no “Vertrag widerrufen” button and they send no acknowledgement with date and time when the customer submits. The first email only goes out when you change the status of the return.

They are still useful for collecting the product and refunding. The declaration the law regulates comes before that.

How it works with our module

We built the withdrawal button for PrestaShop following these rules point by point, and it works for Germany and Austria with the same German texts:

• The link is where your customer looks for it: in the footer of every page, in her account and, while the period runs, on each order. You choose the label per language.
• The form is open to everyone, guest orders included, and only asks for name, order number and email.
• Before sending she sees a summary and submits it with “Widerruf bestätigen”.
• The acknowledgement goes out by email straight away, with the content, the date and the time. The module keeps it exactly as it was sent, and you can download it as an .eml file if you ever have to prove receipt.
• The address of the form is shown by the module for each language: it is exactly the one that goes into the sentence in your withdrawal information.

Every declaration lands in the back office, under Customer Service, with its status, its check against the order and the history of every change.

Frequently asked questions

Does sending the acknowledgement mean I accept the withdrawal?

No. It only confirms that the declaration has reached you. Whether that product carries a right of withdrawal is something you check afterwards, as before.

Do I need the button for earlier orders?

No. The obligation applies to orders from 1 October 2026. Earlier ones stay under the old rules.

Can I use the same button for Austria and Germany?

Yes, as long as it says “Vertrag widerrufen” and meets the four steps above.

Where all of this runs

Button, form, acknowledgement and proof that it went out are a single module. You install it, check the label and the deadline, put the address of the form into your withdrawal information, and your shop complies in Austria just as it does in Germany.