Withdrawal in B2B: the two conditions to qualify

"We sell to businesses, so there is no right of withdrawal." That is the general rule, and it is true most of the time. But there is one case where a business buyer benefits from the same protections as a consumer, button included. If you are unaware of it, you refuse a withdrawal wrongly, and you expose yourself. Here are the two conditions to know.

The general rule: no withdrawal between traders

The right of withdrawal is a consumer protection. Under the Consumer Rights Directive (2011/83/EU, art. 2), a consumer is a natural person acting for purposes outside their trade, business or profession; a trader is anyone acting for purposes relating to their trade. A buyer who orders in the course of their business is not, in principle, a consumer: they have no 14-day period, and you do not owe them the withdrawal button for that sale.

The exception: national extensions to small businesses

The directive sets a floor, and some member states extend the same protections to small businesses under conditions. France, for example, does so on two cumulative conditions:

1. The object of the contract does not fall within the scope of the main activity of the trader being solicited. In other words, they are buying something that has nothing to do with their trade.
2. Their headcount is five employees or fewer.

Both must be met. A plumbing craftsman with three employees who buys accounting software online, unrelated to their core business, can thus benefit from the right of withdrawal. An SME of forty people cannot.

How to know whether you are concerned

Where your national law extends the withdrawal right to small businesses (as France does, see above), ask yourself the two questions in order:

• Do you sell, at least sometimes, to traders with fewer than six employees? If not, the question does not arise.
• Can what you sell them fall outside their main activity? An office consumable, a cross-cutting tool, a generic service: yes. A raw material of their core business: no.

If you answer yes to both, some of your B2B sales must be treated as B2C, compliant button included.

B2B is not the only grey area: the exceptions to withdrawal (Directive 2011/83/EU, art. 16) and the two that concentrate most of the disputes.

What this changes for your compliance

The good news: you do not have to sort your clients one by one. A compliant button, permanently accessible, handles both the consumer and the protected trader alike. For those who have no right of withdrawal, nothing simply happens.

You start with a 7-day free trial (0 € today, cancellable in one click): the button displays at full legal value, with acknowledgement of receipt and timestamped archiving. To go deeper into the case of sales between traders, see the page withdrawal button and B2B sales, and test your situation with the am I concerned? diagnostic.