Selling into the EU from abroad: which consumer law applies?

A recurring question among international e-merchants who deliver into the European Union: I sell from Germany, the United States or Belgium to customers in another EU country, do I have to install the withdrawal button?

The answer depends on three things: your location, the law governing the sale, and the way you target that market.

Note, This article presents the general legal framework applicable since 19 June 2026. It does not replace legal advice. For a specific situation, in particular if your activity has a significant international dimension, consulting a firm specialising in private international law and European consumer law is recommended.

The principle: who is protected, and where

The withdrawal button obligation is EU law, not the law of any single country. The Consumer Rights Directive (2011/83/EU) protects the consumer party to a contract concluded at a distance, and Directive (EU) 2023/2673 adds the dedicated button, both harmonised across the 27 member states, without regard to the nationality of the consumer or the location of the trader. The real question is therefore: for a cross-border sale, which country's law governs, and so which national transposition applies to your customer?

Two instruments answer this: the Regulation (EC) No 593/2008 ("Rome I") for sellers established inside the European Union or outside the EU, and the Directive (EU) 2023/2673 as the common baseline every EU country must transpose.

Case 1, You are established in another European Union country

This is the most frequent case: a company established in one EU country selling to consumers in another, via an e-commerce site.

Directive (EU) 2023/2673 is being transposed across all 27 Member States. By its deadline, every EU country must provide for an equivalent obligation: an accessible withdrawal function that is easy to find on all online sales interfaces.

Three scenarios arise. If your national law has already transposed the directive and requires a withdrawal function, you apply your national law, which is materially very close everywhere, the button installed for your domestic customers satisfies, in practice, the requirements of the customer's country too. If your national law has not yet transposed it at the time of your sale to a consumer in another EU state, the Rome I Regulation (Article 6) comes into play: as soon as you direct your commercial activity towards that country, its consumer law may apply, including its withdrawal-button rules.

The borderline case remains: your national law has a different, more lenient transposition. Article 6(2) of the Rome I Regulation provides that the consumer cannot be deprived of the protection afforded by their own national law. If the consumer's national law is more protective, it applies for that consumer, save for valid contractual clauses.

For a European company selling across borders, aligning on the customer's national law is quickly the safest route, whether through direct transposition of your own law or through application of the Rome I Regulation.

Case 2, You are established outside the European Union

An American, Canadian, Swiss, British, Japanese, Chinese, Australian company… selling to EU consumers.

The Rome I Regulation also applies, along a similar logic. Article 6(1) provides that:

If you, a foreign seller, direct your activity towards an EU country, the contract with a consumer resident there is governed by that country's law. Its withdrawal-button rules then apply as they would to a seller established there.

How is "directing activity towards a country" assessed? European case law (CJEU, judgment Pammer / Hotel Alpenhof, 2010, cases C-585/08 and C-144/09) drew up an indicative list:

• Site available in the consumer's language (a language that is not that of the country of establishment)
• Prices displayed in the local currency (for example euros, a currency that is not that of the country of establishment)
• Delivery to that country offered and charged
• Mention of customers from that country in reviews or testimonials
• Telephone number with an international or that country's prefix
• Paid search geo-targeting that country (geo-located Google Ads)
• Specific top-level domain of that country (.ie, .fr, .de), or .eu with content aimed at it
• Explicit mention of delivery to that country or region

None of these criteria is decisive on its own. It's the body of indicators that characterises the direction of the activity towards a given market. In concrete terms, if you intentionally target an EU market (through your language, your prices, your logistics or your marketing), you are considered to be directing your activity there, and that country's law applies to your sales to its residents.

Case 3, You sell "by chance" to an isolated EU consumer

An American shop, site in English, prices in dollars, delivery to North America only. An EU consumer places an order using their family address in New York. You have not directed your activity towards any EU country: you are not caught by its withdrawal rules. The applicable law will be, by default, that of the seller's country (Rome I Article 4) or that chosen in the terms and conditions.

This is more or less the only case where an international B2C activity escapes the EU withdrawal rules, and it remains rare in practice. As soon as logistics into an EU country or a site in that country's language exists, the situation tips over.

The practical rule for deciding

A tax nuance not to be confused

Directing activity towards a country is not the same as being established there. You may well be considered as directing your activity for consumer law purposes (and therefore caught by that country's withdrawal rules) without having a permanent establishment there in the tax sense (and therefore without being taxed there). The two regimes answer to distinct rules.

On the VAT side, since 2021, the IOSS regime (Import One-Stop Shop) and the European OSS one-stop shop allow centralised collection. A foreign seller who sells more than 10,000 € excl. tax per year to EU consumers must register for VAT in the country of consumption or use OSS. This is a subject distinct from consumer law, but the two coexist: a foreign seller liable for VAT in an EU market is almost always, in parallel, considered to be directing their activity towards that market.

What to do in practice

First, audit your direction of activity towards each EU market you serve: take stock of the criteria listed above (language, currency, delivery, marketing targeting, domain). If three or more apply for a given country, consider yourself concerned there.

Then, check the state of transposition in your country of establishment if you are in the EU. Directive 2023/2673 sets a transposition deadline of 19 June 2026 for all Member States; by that date, the majority of EU countries will have their own equivalent obligation.

Finally, the safest and least costly route for multi-country sellers is to install a single solution for all European markets, one button, multilingual, configurable per market.

When in doubt

The Am I concerned diagnostic includes a question dedicated to establishment abroad: depending on your situation, it steers you towards a clear-cut verdict or towards a borderline case to be confirmed with a lawyer. For the detail of the whole scheme (the button Directive (EU) 2023/2673, the Consumer Rights Directive 2011/83/EU, penalties), the full guide remains the reference, sourced from EUR-Lex.

The Rome I Regulation and European case law on "directing activity" are delicate to apply in atypical cases. If your activity is mixed in nature (B2B/B2C, multi-country, outside the EU), a precise legal opinion is well worth the cost of insurance for the first sales.