What are the distance selling rules?
Wahid Musawi · Co-founder · TelesalesUpdated 31 Aug 2026Distance selling rules are the UK consumer protections for sales made without meeting, by phone, online or by post. Today they live mainly in the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013: the trader must say who they are and what the offer costs before the sale, confirm the contract durably, and honour a 14-day cancellation right for most purchases.
The name is older than the law
People still search for the Distance Selling Regulations 2000, but those were replaced in June 2014 by the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013. The shape survived: pre-contract information, durable confirmation, cancellation rights. If a page you are reading cites the 2000 regulations as current, it is a decade out of date.
What a phone sale owes the customer
Before the deal: the trader’s identity, the sales purpose of the call, the total price including everything periodic, and the cancellation right. After the deal: confirmation on a durable medium, paper, email or a message the customer keeps. On this platform the confirmation SMS does that job and one more, it is the customer’s own written yes, without which the sale simply does not count.
Marketing calls have their own rulebook
Separate from contract rules, the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations govern who may be called at all: numbers on the Telephone Preference Service must not receive live marketing calls without consent, and callers must not conceal their number. Screening against the registers before dialling is not best practice, it is the law, which is why the dialer here does it before a call connects.
The trader’s checklist for a compliant phone sale
Before the customer commits: who you are and for whom you are calling, the main characteristics of the product, the total price including taxes and any periodic charges, delivery costs, the contract’s duration and exit terms, and the existence and mechanics of the cancellation right. After: confirmation on a durable medium within a reasonable time and before any service begins. Miss the cancellation information and the consumer’s window stretches by up to 12 months; charge for anything not expressly agreed and the charge is unrecoverable. The regulations read like a script requirement because, for phone selling, that is exactly what they are.
Business customers are a different regime
The Consumer Contracts Regulations protect consumers, individuals acting outside a trade. A sole trader buying broadband for the shop is often still acting for the business, so the 14-day right does not automatically apply B2B; what applies instead is the contract itself, misrepresentation law and, in some sectors, regulator-specific protections for micro-businesses. Campaigns here confirm B2B sales in writing all the same, because a written yes is cheaper than an argument in either regime.
General description, not legal advice. B2B calls, financial services and some sectors carry additional rules; a brand running a regulated product should take its own advice, and the compliance questions in our buying guides are the ones to ask any provider.
Related questions, answered short
Do the Distance Selling Regulations 2000 still apply?
No. They were revoked in June 2014 and replaced by the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 for contract information and cancellation, with the Consumer Rights Act 2015 covering the goods and services themselves. Pages citing the 2000 regulations as current law are out of date.
Do distance selling rules apply to phone sales?
Yes, squarely. A sale concluded on a call with no face-to-face contact is a distance contract: the information duties, durable confirmation and the 14-day cancellation right all apply, plus PECR’s rules on the marketing call itself.
Do the distance selling rules apply to business purchases?
Generally no; the cancellation right protects consumers. Business-to-business sales rely on the contract and general law instead, which is why written confirmation matters even where the statute does not require it.