Guide

Buying whisky online: your rights on returns and breakages

What UK consumer law gives you when an online whisky order arrives broken, goes missing or is not what you wanted, and the first steps for each problem.

When an online whisky order goes wrong, the remedy depends on what went wrong. A bottle smashed in transit, a parcel that never arrives and a simple change of mind are three different legal situations with three different sets of rules. The short version: if the goods are faulty or misdescribed, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 is on your side; if you just changed your mind, the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 usually give you 14 days to cancel.

This guide covers a UK consumer buying from a trader, checked against the legislation and government guidance linked below on 26 October 2026. It is general information, not legal advice. Uisge Beatha compares prices; we are not the seller, and we cannot decide a dispute between you and a retailer.

Which problem do you have?

A broken, leaking or wrongly described bottle

Goods supplied by a trader must be of satisfactory quality, fit for their purpose and as described (sections 9 to 11 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015). A bottle that arrives smashed, leaking or clearly different from the listing fails that test, and sale items have exactly the same protection as full-price ones.

The strongest remedy is the short-term right to reject: within 30 days of receiving the goods you can reject them for a full refund, subject to the statutory conditions and exclusions (sections 19 to 24). After that window, the later remedies run through repair or replacement first, with a price reduction or final right to reject if those fail, so the same fault can have a different answer at week two and at month four.

Practical steps that help whichever remedy applies:

1. Photograph the damage, the packaging and the label before moving anything, if it is safe to do so. Do not handle broken glass.
2. Keep all the packaging; couriers and retailers often ask for it.
3. Contact the retailer promptly, in writing, quoting your order number and what you want: refund, replacement or repair.

One caution: taste is not evidence. Not enjoying a correctly described whisky does not make it faulty, though a genuinely contaminated or spoiled bottle is a different matter.

The bottle did not arrive

Unless you agreed a different timescale, the trader must deliver without undue delay and in any event within 30 days (section 28 of the Act). If the trader refuses to deliver, or delivery by a particular time was essential and they miss it, you can treat the contract as ended straight away. Otherwise the normal route is to give a further reasonable deadline before ending the contract and claiming your money back.

Risk matters here. Under section 29, the goods remain at the trader’s risk until they come into your physical possession, or the possession of someone you have identified to receive them. The exception is a carrier you commission independently that the trader did not offer: then risk passes when the goods reach your carrier. In plain terms, if the retailer’s courier loses or smashes your parcel, that is the retailer’s problem, not yours. If you instruct a safe place or a neighbour, the facts get more delicate, so photograph the delivery and report problems immediately.

Returning a bottle when you change your mind

Buying online gives you a cooling-off right that buying in a shop does not. Under regulations 29 to 35 of the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013:

• You normally have 14 days from the day after you receive the goods to tell the trader you are cancelling, then a further 14 days to send the goods back.
• The trader refunds the price plus the cost of the least expensive standard outward delivery. Return postage can fall to you if that was properly disclosed.
• The refund is due within 14 days of the trader receiving the goods back or your evidence of posting, and the trader can withhold it until then.
• If you handle the goods beyond what is needed to inspect them, the trader can deduct for the reduction in value. Unwrapping cellophane to check the bottle is inspection; drinking a third of it is not.
• If the trader failed to tell you about the cancellation right, the cancellation period can be extended, so missing information works in your favour.

A retailer can be more generous than the law, and many are, but a shop’s returns policy is a promise, not the legal baseline.

Opened bottles, personalised gifts and pre-orders

Three situations attract blanket claims that the law does not actually support:

• Opened bottles. Breaking the seal does not automatically erase the cancellation right, but drinking a meaningful amount is handling beyond inspection and reduces the value you get back. The sealed-goods hygiene exception exists for health reasons; whether it covers a particular opened spirit is a question of fact, so do not assume either answer.
• Personalised bottles. Clearly personalised goods are excluded from cancellation under regulation 28. An engraved birthday message qualifies; a gift-wrapped standard bottle does not.
• Whisky with a fluctuating value. Regulation 28 also excludes alcoholic beverages, but only when all three statutory conditions are met: the price was agreed when the contract was made, delivery can only happen after 30 days, and the value depends on market fluctuations beyond the trader’s control. An ordinary bottle dispatched next week meets none of these. The clause is aimed at fine-wine-style en primeur arrangements, not at whisky in general, and there is no blanket pre-order exception either.

Auctions and private sellers

Your statutory rights assume a trader selling to a consumer. At auction, first identify who you are actually contracting with: the auction house often sells as agent for a seller who may be a business or a private individual. A “public auction” in the legal sense means competitive bidding run by an auctioneer that consumers attend, or are given the possibility to attend, in person, so an online-only bidding site is not automatically one. Some statutory rules are also modified for second-hand goods sold at qualifying public auctions. Private sales carry far fewer statutory protections: the broad expectation is that the item matches its description, and little more. For anything complex, get advice before bidding rather than after.

What to do if the retailer refuses

1. Keep the order confirmation, listing screenshots, photographs and every message.
2. Put your request in writing, naming the remedy you want and the legal basis, and give a clear deadline.
3. If that fails, contact the consumer advice service for your part of the UK: Citizens Advice consumer service in England and Wales, Advice Direct Scotland in Scotland, or Consumerline in Northern Ireland.
4. If you paid by credit or debit card, ask your provider about a section 75 claim or chargeback. These are routes to try, not guarantees, and each has its own conditions.

Checked 26 October 2026 against the Consumer Rights Act 2015, the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 and the government guidance linked above. Laws and advice routes change; confirm the current position before acting on a dispute.

Sources and review

About the author

John Fegan · Editor

Hailing from the land of haggis and deep-fried Mars bars, John was always going to find his way to whisky. He has run Uisge Beatha since 2015 and Whiskipedia.com since 2020.