Can I recover payment processor fees if I am refunding a consumer under the 14 day cooling off period?
The answer to this question and the second question will also be useful to know when YOU as an individual are buying consumer goods and want to cancel within 14 days.
Under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Chargers) Regulations 2013 there is an express provision that says that other than deducting an amount for (i) diminution in value due to handling of the goods and (ii) deducting for an enhanced method of postage, you are not allowed to deduct any other amount or charge any kind of administration fee or other fee.
As such you cannot recover payment processor fees if you refund a consumer under the 14 day cooling off period. Payment processors will have varying terms and conditions but many will not refund you the fee on a refund, meaning that you will be out of pocket for this.
With postage, what the provisions mean as to deduction from the refund to the consumer for an enhanced method of postage, is that if for example you have a standard delivery for free but the consumer chose next day delivery at £9.99, you could retain the £9.99 as that was over and above your usual delivery cost. If your usual delivery cost is £2.99 and the consumer chose the £9.99 next day delivery, then you could retain the difference between £2.99 and £9.99, namely £7.
As for diminution in value due to handling of the goods, see the answer to the next question!
The relevant provisions in the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Chargers) Regulations 2013 are:
34.—(1) The trader must reimburse all payments, other than payments for delivery, received from the consumer, subject to paragraph (10).
(2) The trader must reimburse any payment for delivery received from the consumer, unless the consumer expressly chose a kind of delivery costing more than the least expensive common and generally acceptable kind of delivery offered by the trader.
(3) In that case, the trader must reimburse any payment for delivery received from the consumer up to the amount the consumer would have paid if the consumer had chosen the least expensive common and generally acceptable kind of delivery offered by the trader.
(8) The trader must not impose any fee on the consumer in respect of the reimbursement.
(9) If (in the case of a sales contract) the value of the goods is diminished by any amount as a result of handling of the goods by the consumer beyond what is necessary to establish the nature, characteristics and functioning of the goods, the trader may recover that amount from the consumer, up to the contract price.
(10) An amount that may be recovered under paragraph (9)—
(a)may be deducted from the amount to be reimbursed under paragraph (1);
(b)otherwise, must be paid by the consumer to the trader.
(11) Paragraph (9) does not apply if the trader has failed to provide the consumer with the information on the right to cancel required by paragraph (l) of Schedule 2, in accordance with Part 2.
(12) For the purposes of paragraph (9) handling is beyond what is necessary to establish the nature, characteristics and functioning of the goods if, in particular, it goes beyond the sort of handling that might reasonably be allowed in a shop.
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