A Which? investigation has found that several major UK retailers are breaking the law by failing to properly refund customers who return online purchases. The consumer group sent 12 mystery shoppers to buy more than 200 items from 17 big online retailers in June and July, then tracked the returns process, and found some firms withheld delivery costs while others failed to refund the price of the goods themselves. John Lewis performed best and became the first retailer to earn Which?'s new "recommended provider" status for returns, while Matalan, River Island and Sports Direct were named as among the worst offenders.

Matalan, which charges for returns, refunded the product cost to just seven of the 12 shoppers and reimbursed none of them for original delivery fees; in one case a customer returning a £3.99 item ended up £9.98 out of pocket. River Island and Sports Direct failed to refund original delivery charges in any tested case, despite retailers being legally required to reimburse standard delivery costs under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, which gives online shoppers 14 days to cancel and a further 14 days to return goods, with refunds due within 14 days of the item being received. Which? said shoppers "shouldn't be left to foot the bill for retailers' mistakes," while Sports Direct said it could not comment meaningfully without more case details from Which?, and River Island had not yet responded.