In short. Article 11 requires electronic acknowledgment without undue delay and treats orders and acknowledgments as received when their addressees can access them.
Definition: Under Article 11 of the EU E-Commerce Directive, a shop must acknowledge an order placed through technological means without undue delay and by electronic means, subject to specified exceptions. The order and its acknowledgment count as received when their respective addressees can access them.
Key facts
- Article 11(1) of the E-Commerce Directive sets both the electronic acknowledgment duty and the accessibility test for receipt.
- Article 8(7) of the Consumer Rights Directive separately requires confirmation of a concluded distance contract on a durable medium, within a reasonable time and by delivery of goods or before services begin at the latest.
- Your Europe's distance-selling guidance gives a letter or email as examples of a durable format for contract confirmation.
When does receipt occur, and what form can acknowledgment take?
Article 11(1) of the E-Commerce Directive ties receipt to the addressee's ability to access the order or acknowledgment. This applies in both directions: the shop receives the order under that test, and the customer receives the acknowledgment under the same test. Actual reading is outside the stated condition.
The deadline is “without undue delay”; Article 11 gives no fixed number of minutes or hours. The required means are electronic. Recital 34 gives a specific possible form: acknowledgment may consist of providing the paid-for service online.
Which exceptions apply?
Article 11(3) of the E-Commerce Directive exempts contracts concluded exclusively through an exchange of email or equivalent individual communications from the acknowledgment duty and the input-error correction duty in Article 11(2). The exception leaves the accessibility rule for receipt in Article 11(1)'s second indent in place.
The word “exclusively” limits that exception to the way the contract is concluded. Sending an acknowledgment by email after a website order does not itself make the contract an email-only exchange.
Articles 11(1) and 11(2) also allow parties who are not consumers to agree otherwise. A transaction between businesses therefore falls within the default rules unless the parties agree a different arrangement; the contractual exception is limited to non-consumer parties.
How does acknowledgment fit with checkout and contract confirmation?
Before an order is placed, Article 11(2) of the E-Commerce Directive requires appropriate, effective and accessible technical means to identify and correct input errors. Article 10(1)(c) also requires information about those means before ordering, subject to that article's exceptions.
A durable medium is a means of storing personally addressed information for future reference and reproducing it unchanged. Article 2(10) of the Consumer Rights Directive supplies that definition. Article 8(7) requires confirmation of the concluded distance contract on such a medium and inclusion of the Article 6(1) information, unless it has already been supplied on a durable medium before conclusion. Article 8(9) expressly preserves the E-Commerce Directive's electronic-order rules.
Related terms
- What must a shop explain about the online ordering process?
- What must an online shop's payment button communicate?
FAQ
Must the acknowledgment always be a separate email?
Article 11 requires electronic means. Recital 34 of the E-Commerce Directive allows acknowledgment through online provision of the service paid for.
Does a customer have to open the acknowledgment for it to count as received?
Article 11(1) uses the point at which the customer can access it. The same article applies that accessibility test to the shop's receipt of the order.
Does a receipt acknowledgment settle when a contract is formed?
The Consumer Rights Directive, Article 3(5), preserves national rules on contract formation insofar as the directive leaves those aspects unregulated. Article 8(7) concerns confirmation of a contract already concluded.
Sources
- EUR-Lex, "Directive 2000/31/EC on electronic commerce", 8 June 2000
- EUR-Lex, "Directive 2011/83/EU on consumer rights", consolidated 27 September 2026
- Your Europe, "B2C E-commerce, distance & off-premises selling", 12 July 2026
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