Proof of withdrawal: what gives it evidential value
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Do you sell online to consumers in the EU? Receiving a withdrawal request is not enough: in the event of a dispute over the date, or during a check by the regulator, you must be able to prove what you received, and when. Across the whole European Union, electronic evidence cannot be set aside solely on the ground that it is digital: the eIDAS Regulation (EU) No 910/2014, directly applicable in all 27, establishes this principle. Its value then rests on three things: a reliable date, content whose integrity is verifiable, and an identifiable author. The eIDAS Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 says the same thing across the Union: an electronic document is worth as much as paper before the court, as long as its author can be identified and the integrity of the content guaranteed.
The four elements of solid proof
A certain date
The exact date and time the request was received, to place the exercise of the right within the 14-day legal period.
Content that cannot be changed
The content of the request is locked the moment it is received: any subsequent change is immediately visible. So you can demonstrate that the request has not been tampered with.
An identified customer, an email they keep
The customer’s contact details and an acknowledgement of receipt sent by email, which they keep, to link the request to its author in a verifiable way.
A date recorded in a public register
The date is recorded in a public register that no one can rewrite: it becomes verifiable without access to our systems. Anyone, a court, a supervisory authority or the customer, can check it at backtome.fr/en/verify-proof.
Why a screenshot or a simple email are fragile
A screenshot can be altered in a few seconds, and an isolated email does not on its own prove the date or the fact that the content has not moved. They count as a starting point of proof, but a court freely assesses their value, and it weakens if the other party disputes their authenticity. A reliable date combined with locked content greatly reduces this fragility.
How BackToMe builds the proof
For every withdrawal received via the button, BackToMe automatically generates:
- a reference number and a certain date,
- a lock on the content of the request, impossible to change afterwards,
- an acknowledgement of receipt sent immediately to the customer by email, which they keep.
Together these are archived and form a proof that you can present in the event of a dispute, in any member state (electronic evidence admissible under the eIDAS Regulation (EU) No 910/2014, whose weight a court freely assesses). A dated PDF certificate can be downloaded at any time.
What this lock proves, and what it does not
Let us be precise, because the nuance protects the merchant. The locked content and its recording in a public register that no one can rewrite prove that a record existed on a given date and that it has not moved since. On their own, they do not assert that the content of the request is accurate, nor that it truly comes from a particular person.
In practice, the other party will scarcely be able to dispute the date or the fact that the record has not moved: the debate then shifts to the content or the origin of the request, which the customer’s identification and the email acknowledgement help support. This is why we speak of clearly stronger proof, and not a guarantee: across the 27 member states, under the eIDAS Regulation, a court always freely assesses its value.
Solid proof for every withdrawal
Button compliant with the European obligation (Directive (EU) 2023/2673, in force across the 27 EU member states; in Ireland, enforced by the CCPC under the Consumer Rights Act 2022), automatic acknowledgement of receipt and dated archiving that you can present in the event of a dispute. 7-day free trial: 0 € today, 30-day money-back guarantee.
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References: eIDAS Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 (Articles 46 and 41) · Consumer Rights Directive 2011/83/EU · Directive (EU) 2023/2673 (modernised withdrawal button). This article is informational and does not constitute legal advice.