Can a Customer Withdraw From a Personalised or Custom Order?

Usually, no. Under the Consumer Rights Directive (2011/83/EU), goods that are made to the consumer’s specifications or are clearly personalised are exempt from the standard 14-day right of withdrawal. The reasoning is practical: a product cut, engraved, printed, or built to one customer’s exact requirements generally cannot be resold to anyone else, so the usual right to change one’s mind does not apply.

What counts as “personalised” or “custom”?

The exemption is narrower than many sellers assume. It covers goods that are genuinely made or modified to the individual customer’s choices — an engraved nameplate, a bespoke-cut curtain, a portrait printed with the buyer’s own photo, or furniture built to non-standard dimensions.

It does not cover a mass-produced item that the customer simply picks from a menu of standard options. Choosing a size, a stock colour, or a pre-existing variant that you keep in normal inventory is ordinary selection, not personalisation. If the returned item can go straight back on the shelf and be sold to the next buyer, the exemption almost certainly does not apply.

Where sellers get it wrong

• Labelling every “configurable” product as custom to dodge returns — regulators look at whether the good is genuinely unsaleable to others.
• Failing to tell the customer, before they order, that the item is exempt from withdrawal.
• Assuming the exemption removes all consumer rights — the legal guarantee of conformity still applies if the goods are faulty.

Even where withdrawal does not apply, you must still meet your pre-contract information duties and flag the exemption clearly. For the full picture, see our complete withdrawal button guide and the withdrawal-button law page.

This answer is educational and does not constitute legal advice.