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Refund Policy Generator USA

No federal privacy statute - a growing patchwork of state laws, plus FTC Section 5 and the wiretapping class-action risk.

Generate your refund policy Read the refund policy guide

The US has no federal cooling-off right for online purchases, which means your refund policy is largely the whole of the customer’s entitlement - and that makes its clarity a chargeback question rather than a statutory one.

The United States has no general federal privacy law. What it has instead is a widening set of comprehensive state statutes - California, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, Texas, Oregon, Montana, Florida, Delaware, Iowa, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Tennessee, Minnesota and Maryland among them - layered over sectoral rules for health, finance, education and children.

Above all of them sits Section 5 of the FTC Act. The FTC does not need a privacy statute to act: if your policy says one thing and your product does another, that is a deceptive practice, and the resulting consent orders run for twenty years. A US privacy policy is therefore best understood as a promise you will be held to literally.

The most expensive US privacy risk for a small business is not usually a regulator. It is private litigation under old wiretapping statutes - California’s CIPA in particular - repurposed against session replay, chat widgets and advertising pixels. That risk turns on consent and disclosure, which is exactly what the policy and banner control.

What a refund policy in the United States has to cover

The refund window and what starts it, stated before purchase
Any state-specific requirements - several states require a conspicuous refund policy or default to full refunds without one
Automatic renewal disclosure and easy cancellation, now required federally and by several state statutes
Restocking fees and return shipping responsibility, disclosed pre-purchase
How refunds interact with chargebacks and card network rules

How the United States actually moves personal data

Advertising pixels and conversion APIs

Meta, Google and TikTok pixels plus server-side conversion APIs move identifiable data to ad platforms. Under most state laws this is "sharing for targeted advertising" and needs an opt-out; under CIPA theories it is the basis of the complaint.

Session replay and chat tooling

Tools that record keystrokes, mouse movement or chat content are the highest-frequency source of US privacy class actions. Disclosure before the recording starts is the defence.

Data broker and enrichment inflows

Buying enrichment data makes you a recipient of third-party personal information, which several state laws require you to disclose - and California’s Delete Act may make you a registered data broker.

Health-adjacent data outside HIPAA

Wellness, fitness and symptom data usually falls outside HIPAA but inside Washington’s My Health My Data Act, which carries a private right of action.

Children and teens

COPPA applies under 13; several state laws add duties for teens, and age-appropriate design codes impose obligations that go well past a checkbox.

Third parties the draft will ask you about

Stripe · Shopify Payments · Google Analytics 4 · Meta Pixel · Klaviyo · HubSpot · Twilio and SendGrid · AWS us-east-1 · Intercom · Segment

The rules that apply

State comprehensive privacy laws

Seventeen-plus states with rights of access, deletion, correction, portability and opt-out of targeted advertising and sale, with thresholds that catch mid-sized businesses.

FTC Act Section 5

Unfair or deceptive acts and practices. Your published statements are enforceable commitments regardless of any privacy statute.

Sectoral statutes

HIPAA for covered entities, GLBA for financial institutions, FERPA for education records, COPPA for under-13s, and the VPPA for video viewing histories.

Wiretapping and pen-register claims

CIPA in California and analogous state statutes drive class actions over session replay, chat transcription and pixel-based tracking.

Global Privacy Control

California, Colorado, Connecticut and others require honouring an opt-out preference signal from the browser, not just a link on the site.

What the generated refund policy contains

The statutory right, stated separately
Consumer cancellation rights exist whatever your policy says, so they are set out first and your goodwill terms second.
Time limits and how they are counted
When the clock starts, whether it runs in calendar or working days, and what stops it.
Condition and evidence requirements
What state goods must come back in, and what proof of purchase you accept.
Who pays return postage
Split between faulty and change-of-mind returns, because the law treats them differently.
Refund method and timing
Original payment method, and the deadline you commit to once goods or notice are received.
Exclusions, stated lawfully
Perishables, personalised goods, unsealed hygiene items and downloaded digital content - the exclusions the law actually permits.

Building a US-facing policy

Work out which state laws you actually meet the threshold for
Most turn on residents processed per year plus revenue, and several drop the threshold where you derive revenue from selling data.
Inventory every tag before you write the disclosure
The list of tags is the list of disclosures. Anything you cannot see, you cannot describe accurately.
Implement opt-out end to end
The link, the preference signal, and the downstream propagation to ad platforms through their limited-data-use or restricted-processing settings.
Reconcile the policy against the product line by line
This is what an FTC investigation does, so do it first.
Set an annual review date and record it
Some state laws require it, and it is the cheapest possible evidence of a compliance programme.

Where this usually goes wrong

Promising more than the product does

A line like "we never share your data with third parties" alongside a live Meta pixel is a Section 5 case with no privacy statute required.

A "Do Not Sell" link that does nothing

Several state attorneys general have opened enforcement on exactly this: a link that renders a form which never reaches the ad platforms.

Ignoring browser opt-out signals

Global Privacy Control has to be honoured where state law requires it. A site with a compliant link and no GPC handling is only half done.

Treating one state law as covering all of them

Thresholds, definitions of sale, cure periods and universal opt-out obligations differ. A Virginia-shaped notice will not satisfy California.

Session replay with no pre-collection notice

Notice after the fact does not help. The consent has to be obtainable before the recording tool loads.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a federal US privacy law?

No general one. There are sectoral laws - HIPAA, GLBA, FERPA, COPPA, the VPPA - and Section 5 of the FTC Act, which reaches any business whose privacy statements are misleading.

Do I need to comply with every state law?

Only the ones whose thresholds you meet, but the practical answer for most growing businesses is to build to the strictest applicable standard - usually California - and treat the rest as variations.

What is the Global Privacy Control?

A browser-level signal that communicates an opt-out of sale and targeted advertising. California, Colorado and Connecticut among others require businesses to honour it as a valid request.

Why are companies being sued over website chat and analytics?

Plaintiffs use decades-old wiretapping and pen-register statutes, especially California’s CIPA, arguing that third-party tools intercept communications without consent. Clear pre-collection disclosure and consent are the practical defence.

Can I run a no-refunds policy?

Not against statutory rights. In the UK and EU a consumer’s cancellation and faulty-goods rights apply regardless of what your policy says, and advertising "no refunds" is itself treated as a misleading practice.

Do digital products have to be refundable?

The cancellation right can be waived for digital content, but only if the customer gave express consent to immediate delivery and acknowledged losing the right. That acknowledgement has to be captured at checkout, not assumed.

How long do I have to issue a refund?

In the UK and EU, within 14 days of receiving the goods back or of the customer proving they returned them. Card scheme rules and marketplace policies often impose something tighter.