When we shipped stripes and bundles, the first internal argument was about the refund window. A common industry pattern is a 7-day satisfaction guarantee for digital-learning content, or nothing at all beyond the statutory 14-day EU withdrawal right. We picked 60 minutes on top of the statutory right, worldwide. This post is why.
The 14-day right is fine, but it is not the point
Under Article 16(m) of Directive 2011/83/EU, the 14-day withdrawal right for digital content is extinguished the moment the learner starts consuming the material, provided they consented to that consequence at enrolment. So in practice, the statutory right protects a learner who paid and did not open the platform. It does very little for the learner who opened the first chapter, realised the format is not for them, and closed the tab.
Why sixty, not thirty or ninety
Sixty minutes is enough time to open the first chapter, skim the second, and know whether the pace and voice suit you. It is not long enough to complete a chapter and its assessment, so a bad-faith buyer cannot use the window to harvest the content. In our early testing with a small cohort, refund requests inside the sixty-minute window were dominated by "wrong programme, wanted the stripe, not the base tier" — a genuine confusion, and one that the window resolves cleanly.
Corporate purchase orders sit differently
Consumer-protection directives cover natural persons acting outside their trade. A purchase order signed by an organisation is not a consumer transaction, so the statutory withdrawal right does not apply. We still extend the sixty-minute goodwill window to enterprise buyers by default — a company that just realised the seat was assigned to the wrong person deserves the same recovery path a solo learner has. Where a bespoke engagement letter carries different terms, those govern.
What we will not do
- Refund after a credential in the enrolment has been earned. The credential remains valid on its own terms; refunding the fee that produced it would let a graduate reclaim the training their credential attests to.
- Refund partial completions on the "I only got halfway" pattern. Halfway is the majority of the learning value; the assessment is where the credential lives, and the assessment is the same size regardless of pace.
- Refund for reasons that are not the product — a change in the buyer's budget after two months of use, a role change three chapters in.
A short window that we honour cleanly is worth more than a long window with an argument at the end of it.
Full policy at /stripe-terms. If you think a specific situation should qualify and does not, write to support@cyber-protocol.org with your order reference — we read every message and answer within a business day.