Nové tlačítko „odstoupit” při online smlouvách

At the end of March this year, the Chamber of Deputies approved in the first reading a draft law aimed at transposing European Directive No. 2023/2673. The proposed changes will most significantly affect the Consumer Protection Act and the Civil Code.

The most discussed change introduced by the proposed amendment is the introduction of the possibility for consumers to withdraw from contracts concluded online via a dedicated button or another similar control element intended for contract withdrawal. However, the term “similar control element” is not further specified. It can therefore be inferred that in practice, a virtual button will most commonly be used. The aim of the directive, and thus the proposed amendment, is to enable consumers to withdraw from a contract as easily as they concluded it in the online interface.

The proposed amendment further specifies the obligations related to the withdrawal button. The button must be displayed prominently in the online interface, be easily accessible, and available continuously throughout the withdrawal period. It must also be labelled with a clearly readable inscription “Withdraw from contract” or another unambiguous and appropriate formulation. However, clicking the button alone will not constitute withdrawal from the contract; after clicking, the consumer will be prompted to fill out a withdrawal statement, which they will then confirm online after completion.

Since the obligation to make the withdrawal button available must last throughout the withdrawal period, and this period varies depending on the type of contract (for contracts for the purchase of goods from the date the consumer takes possession of the item, for service contracts from the date of contract conclusion), e-shops and other companies and entrepreneurs enabling online contract conclusion will need to set up internal processes to track the contract conclusion date or the date of delivery of goods to the consumer.

The new rules also include the obligation to inform consumers about the possibility of withdrawing from the contract through this new function. For this reason, we recommend explicitly adding this information to the withdrawal rights instructions.

Failure to comply with the above obligations will be sanctioned by the Czech Trade Inspection Authority (ČOI) under the Consumer Protection Act, with fines of up to CZK 5 million.

The draft amendment currently envisages the effectiveness of these changes from June 19, 2026.

Authors:

Dušan Kmoch

Ondřej Pajatsch

Tomáš Černý