Digital content and immediate supply: why CCRs Schedule 1 matters

UK traders selling digital content love instant access. Consumers love
instant access and refunds. The law sits in the middle, politely
insisting on some ground rules. The Consumer Contracts Regulations give
digital content its own category, and Schedule 1 and regulation
37 are where the action
is.

What counts as digital content

Digital content includes downloads, streamed material, apps, e-books,
templates and online courses -- anything supplied electronically rather
than as a physical object. gov.uk
guidance treats it separately from goods and services for cancellation and
information rules. If your product is accessible through a login or
download, you're in this bucket.

The immediate supply problem

Under CCRs, consumers normally get 14 days to cancel distance contracts.
That clashes badly with "buy now, instant download", especially if
you're supplying content that can be fully consumed on day one. CCR
2013 reg
37 solves this by letting consumers waive their cooling-off rights in
exchange for immediate supply, but only if you handle the consent
properly.

What Schedule 1 requires

Schedule 1 sets out the information you must give before a consumer is
bound by the contract. For digital content, this includes describing
what it does, compatibility issues and how updates work. Crucially, when
you want immediate supply, you must obtain express consent to start
during the cancellation period and confirm that the right to cancel will
be lost once performance begins. If you skip this, you may be refunding
long after your content has been consumed.

Practical wording in T&Cs

You don't need to quote the Regulations verbatim to every buyer, but you
do need clear language:

• A statement that they're ordering digital content.

• A warning about losing the cooling-off right on immediate supply.

• A consent button or checkbox that captures this explicitly.

Tucking this into a general "terms apply" statement isn't enough. The
consent must be obvious and connected to the
purchase.

How the generator helps

When you tell the Trading Terms generator that you supply digital content
with immediate access, it adds wording based on the Schedule 1 model
cancellation information and the reg 37 consent wording. You still have to wire the
consent up in your checkout, but the heavy lifting of the language is
done for you. That's easier than reinventing the paragraph every time
you launch a new
course.

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