Distance Selling – Putting your fears aside

Online car buying is no longer the pandemic-era workaround it was in 2021 – it's simply how a growing share of your customers expect to shop. Reserving a car, arranging finance and even completing the full purchase before ever setting foot on your forecourt is now routine, not exceptional.

For some dealers that shift has been seamless. For others, it's still fraught with sleepless nights, because selling online in the UK comes with a multitude of regulations to follow, and the fear of getting it wrong can be enough to put dealers off taking online transactions altogether, even reservations.

Because of this, we've teamed up again with the experts at Lawgistics, who specialise in motor trade law, to bring some peace of mind to dealers who still aren't convinced they can sell cars online without opening themselves up to a wave of returns.

Lawgistics has been the go-to legal resource for the automotive industry for over two decades. Nona Bowkis, now Head of Legal Services and a qualified solicitor at Lawgistics, has kindly given us an update on where the distance selling regulations stand today, and on some of the recent court decisions that show exactly how these rules play out in practice.

What constitutes distance selling

Distance selling in the UK is governed by the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013. Nona explains the legal test: "If your customer commits to purchasing a vehicle before setting eyes on the physical vehicle, it is almost certainly a distance sale. Coming to your premises to collect the vehicle does not negate that fact."

But there's a detail that trips dealers up, and it made the difference in a case Lawgistics handled that reached its final conclusion in early 2026. A customer had already successfully forced one dealer to refund a Tesla bought at a distance during Covid. He then tried the same approach with a second dealer, on what looked like an identical set of facts. This time it failed, because the regulations only apply where the sale was made under an "organised distance sales scheme." The second dealer didn't operate one, so the distance selling rules simply didn't bite. The customer's attempts to appeal were refused all the way up, finally closing the matter in January 2026, nearly three and a half years after the original sale.

The lesson for dealers: whether you're caught by these rules can turn on details of exactly how your sales process is organised, not just on how far apart you and the customer were standing.

It's also worth knowing that a binding contract doesn't need a signature, or even need to be in writing. A 2025 High Court case, Jaevee Homes Ltd v Fincham, confirmed that a short exchange of WhatsApp messages covering the price and key terms was enough to form a binding contract, and that paperwork sent afterwards couldn't undo it. If your sales team is messaging customers photos, prices and terms before a vehicle has been seen in person, that exchange itself may already be the point the contract is concluded, whatever happens later at collection.

Click & Collect

Click & Collect is just one component of distance selling and refers to a transaction where the customer purchases the vehicle online, intending to collect it from the dealership afterwards.

There's still confusion among dealers about whether Click & Collect counts as distance selling.

"A deposit is a commitment to purchase, a reservation fee is not."

If you take a reservation fee rather than a deposit, there's no commitment to buy. The customer is free to walk away once they've seen the vehicle, and this won't count as a distance sale, because the commitment only happens once they've seen the car in person.

Nona explains: "Essentially, Click & Collect isn't all about distance sales. What matters is only when the customer commits to buy. A deposit is a commitment to purchase, a reservation fee is not." If a customer reserves a car simply to stop someone else buying it before they can get down for a test drive, that isn't a commitment to buy either.

Home Delivery

Home delivery involves the customer purchasing the vehicle without first seeing it, with the vehicle then transported to their home or work address rather than collected from the dealership.

Nona's advice here: "If a dealer tries to avoid the distance sale rules by taking payment after delivery, a court is likely to see that as an off-premises sale for which the customer will still have the same rights, and the trader can leave themselves open to prosecution."

Know your cooling-off obligations

If a sale is a distance sale, the customer has a statutory 14-day cooling-off period after delivery in which they can cancel and get a full refund, without giving a reason. Crucially, if you fail to properly inform the customer of this right at the point of sale, that 14-day window doesn't just disappear, it extends to up to 12 months. Getting your pre-contract information right isn't a box-ticking exercise; it's what stands between a manageable 14-day window and a car effectively on free loan for a year.

Don't forget the DMCCA

Since our last update on this topic, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCCA) has come into force, and it's directly relevant to any dealer selling online. Two changes stand out:

• Drip pricing is banned. You now need to show the total price upfront, including mandatory fees like admin or delivery charges, rather than introducing them further into the checkout process.
• Fake and incentivised reviews are banned. Asking staff, family, or fellow dealers to leave "genuine-sounding" reviews, or offering discounts in exchange for good ones without disclosing the incentive, is now a specifically prohibited practice.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) can enforce both directly, without going through the courts first, with fines running up to 10% of a business's global turnover for serious breaches. It's a meaningfully higher-stakes environment than when the original distance selling guidance was written.

How you can help prevent vehicle returns

One of the biggest worries among the dealers we speak to is that vehicles bought at a distance will come back, but in most cases, this isn't a common occurrence provided the regulations are properly followed.

The Motor Ombudsman sets out clearly what car buyers' rights are when it comes to distance selling, and adhering closely to the regulations makes a return far less likely in the first place.

You can also reduce your risk by advertising with as much transparency as possible on your digital platform:

Vehicle images

Vehicle images matter enormously when selling online, since they're often the only way a customer sees the car before hitting "buy now." A car is typically the second most expensive purchase most people make, so this isn't a decision made on a whim.

To give yourself the best chance of a clean sale, your images need to show the true condition of the vehicle, imperfections included. Walkaround videos are a strong alternative to static images, giving customers a full 360-degree view so there are no surprises later.

Vehicle description

Your written description needs the same level of honesty. Don't hold back information you think might put a buyer off; if the mileage is high, say so clearly enough that the customer can make an informed decision.

"A misdescribed vehicle will create an easy win for a consumer wanting to reject a vehicle."

Leaving out this kind of detail either drives the customer off your website entirely, or forces them to call your dealership, which eats into your salesperson's time regardless. The worst outcome is a customer completing the purchase, discovering the mileage was understated, and returning the car, which they're fully entitled to do.

Nona explains why this matters: "The Consumer Rights Act 2015 expects three main things from a vehicle: that it's of satisfactory quality for its age, mileage and price paid, that it's fit for purpose, and that it matches its description. A misdescribed vehicle creates an easy win for a consumer wanting to reject it, so getting the description right matters. A disclaimer telling customers to check the description against the actual vehicle is good practice, but it won't necessarily protect you from a misdescription claim."

Transparency remains the simplest protection available to you. Don't give a customer any reason to go through the hassle of returning the car in the first place.

Need assistance with distance selling regulations?

If you're still unclear on how the distance selling regulations, the DMCCA, or recent case law apply to your dealership, speak to the team at Lawgistics, who offer a range of services to support you.

Lawgistics has also updated its distance selling agreement template (now on version 6), available to download directly from their site, along with regular masterclasses on distance selling for dealers who want a deeper grounding in the rules.