Online shop refund penalty: 1% a day for a slow refund

A customer orders a coffee machine from your site, changes their mind, and you agree to cancel. The money is to go back "in a few days". Two weeks later it still hasn't.

Short answer: from the first day after the refund deadline in your own terms, you owe the customer a penalty of 1% of the refund for every day of delay, up to the full amount of the refund. Paying the penalty does not cancel the refund itself: you owe both.

Two laws, one rule

The rule appears twice, word for word. The e-commerce law (art. 27) covers online sales made in the course of business (including through a shop's own site), and its "buyer" can be a person or a company. The consumer-protection law (art. 28-1) covers sales to individuals through any information system. For a shop selling to the public, both apply, and both say the same thing:

• the penalty is a neustoyka (a statutory penalty) of 1% of the sum to be refunded;
• it runs for each day of delay beyond the term set in the contract;
• it cannot exceed the sum to be refunded;
• paying it does not release the seller from its other duties after cancellation.

Your terms start the clock

Neither law sets one national refund deadline. The penalty is tied to the term in your contract: for an online shop, that is your public offer or terms of sale. Write "within 10 days" and day 11 is the first day of penalty.

Write nothing, and you are in a gray zone. The Civil Code (art. 242) then makes the refund due within 7 days of the customer's demand. But the 1% rule speaks only of a term "set by the contract", so whether it runs from day 8 is not settled by the text. Expect the customer to argue that it does. A clear deadline in your terms costs nothing and ends the argument.

What it costs

At the cap, a late refund costs you double: the refund plus a penalty of the same size.

What else the law puts on you

• Before the sale, the consumer-protection law (art. 28-1) requires you to show the buyer who you are, your address and how to complain, the price, the delivery price and payment terms, and how the contract can be cancelled.
• On cancellation, you must tell the buyer where to return the goods.
• The return costs are yours: the costs of taking the goods back and of sending the money back.
• Same way back: unless you agreed otherwise, the money goes back in the form the buyer paid (card to card, cash to cash).
• An opened box is not a lost right. A drop in value because the buyer opened the packaging to inspect the goods, or because of damage that is not their fault, does not take away their right to cancel.

Why customers do sue

Consumers pay no state duty on claims about their rights (consumer-protection law, art. 29). A small refund plus a growing penalty is worth a lawsuit to them, and a cheap one.

What to do now

• Put a refund deadline in your terms. Short enough to be fair, long enough for your bank or payment provider to process it. Count the provider's own processing days.
• Publish the cancellation procedure and the return address on the site, before checkout.
• Refund in the same form the buyer paid, unless they agree to another.
• Track refunds by date. The penalty runs automatically; you will not get a reminder.
• If you are late, pay the penalty with the refund. It is cheaper than a dispute.

Terms for the sale itself are in our guide to goods sale agreements. A ready set of shop documents, including return terms, is the E-Commerce Legal Pack. Not sure your refund terms hold up? Ask us.

Sources

• Law No. ZRU-792 "On Electronic Commerce" of 29 September 2022, arts. 8 and 26–27 — lex.uz
• Law No. 221-I "On Protection of Consumer Rights" of 26 April 1996, arts. 28-1 and 29 — lex.uz
• Civil Code of Uzbekistan, part one, art. 242 — lex.uz

Checked against the law in Lex on 6 October 2026 · Juris Advisory