The new subscription law for food and drink boxes, in plain English
Weekly recipe boxes, coffee every four weeks, a monthly cheese or wine club. From 1 January 2027 a new UK law covers all of them. You will have to email subscribers before you charge them, give new subscribers 14 days to change their mind, and let them cancel on their phone as easily as they signed up. When someone cancels inside the 14 days you refund within 14 days, but you may keep the price of boxes already delivered. We plug into Stripe and do it all for you.
Your typical plans and what the law asks for each
| Plan | What the law asks for |
|---|---|
| Weekly recipe box, first box half price | The half price box is an introductory offer, so an email is due before the first full price box, and a 14 day change of mind period opens when the full price starts. Then a payment reminder at least once every six months. |
| Coffee every four weeks, no offer | A 14 day change of mind period and email at sign-up. Then a payment reminder at least once every six months with the amount, the date and the last day to skip or cancel. |
| Monthly box with a three box minimum | The total the customer commits to (three boxes plus standard delivery) must be on the sign-up page. A change of mind period at sign-up, then the six monthly reminders. |
| Annual prepaid gift subscription | If it renews, each renewal is a new 12 month commitment: a reminder before it and a change of mind period when it renews. If it simply ends, the law does not cover it. |
What we do for your box business
We connect to Stripe and read your plans and subscribers. It reminds subscribers before you take their money, attached to the real next charge date so skips and pauses do not break it. It gives them a cancel page as easy as the sign-up, on their phone. And it keeps a record of every email, click and refund, so if the regulator asks you have the answer.
When someone cancels inside the 14 days, we work out the refund less the boxes already delivered, show you the sum, and record why.
Skips are not cancellations
A skipped delivery moves the next payment but leaves the subscription in place. The law asks for a reminder before a payment at least once every six months, so the reminder follows whichever payment falls due. We read the next charge date from Stripe and attaches the reminder to that.
What the reminder must say does not change: the amount, the date, how to cancel, and the last day to cancel or skip to avoid that charge.
You can keep the price of boxes already delivered
When a customer cancels inside a 14 day change of mind period you refund within 14 days, but you may keep the price of food already delivered plus its standard delivery charge. A customer who cancels on day 10 after two boxes have arrived gets back what they paid less those two boxes and their delivery.
That only works if you can show what was delivered and when. We record the value delivered and the delivery charge against the cancellation, so the sum and the reason are in the record. See change of mind refunds.
Introductory boxes
A first box at half price, or three boxes at £5 off, is an introductory offer. Before the first box at full price the customer needs an email saying the price is going up, to what, and how to cancel. When the full price starts, a 14 day change of mind period opens and an email is due at its start.
The sign-up page must show the full price next to the offer, not only the offer. Our free check looks for the words that explain what happens when the offer ends.
Cancelling from the kitchen
Customers sign up on their phone and expect to cancel on it. The law says cancelling online must take one clear step, with at most one offer to stay. Pausing, skipping and swapping can stay in the account, but the cancel button has to be as easy to find as the join button.
Once they cancel online, you confirm it in writing within 24 hours, saying when the subscription ends and whether a box already in the system will still arrive.
Worked example: weekly box, £24 a box, first box £12, joined Monday 8 March 2027
Change of mind email on 8 March. First box charged at £12 on 8 March. The first full price box is charged on 15 March, so an email is due before it (sent from 8 March if you promise 7 days notice) and a second change of mind period opens on 15 March, with its email, running to 29 March.
The customer cancels online on 20 March after two boxes. Refund of what was paid less the two boxes and their delivery, within 14 days, by 3 April. Cancellation confirmation by 21 March.
Questions
- Does a four weekly plan need a reminder every four weeks?
- No. Plans billed more often than every six months need a reminder before a payment at least once every six months. You may send more, but each must contain the required wording and must not be mixed with marketing.
- Can we keep the cost of a box that was already sent?
- For food already delivered, yes, with its standard delivery charge. You need to be able to show what was delivered and when.
- Is a one-off box covered by the law?
- Not unless it renews or the customer will be charged again unless they cancel. A single purchase is not covered.
- We are a small farm doing a weekly veg box. Are we excluded?
- The law excludes regular food or drink deliveries by very small businesses, in the way a milk round is excluded. The threshold is set by the detailed rules, so check it before relying on it. We record the exclusion and the reason rather than guessing.
This page explains the law in plain English. It is not legal advice. The detailed rules are still being finalised by the government.