Return Deadline Calculator — Korea Online Shopping Cooling-Off Period (7 Days / 3 Months)
Enter the day your parcel arrived and see the last day the Korean law guarantees you can return it.
Return periods set by law
- Change of mind — 7 days from the day you receive the item. Article 17(1) of the Act on the Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce sets 7 days from the day you receive the written contract terms, and if the goods arrive later than that, 7 days from the day you receive the goods. Online orders usually arrive after the contract terms, so the day you receive the item is the starting point.
- Item differs from the ad or description — 3 months from receipt, or 30 days from the day you noticed. This is Article 17(3). You can withdraw until whichever of the two dates comes first.
- If the shop promises a longer period, that period applies. The law sets a minimum (Article 17(1), in the parenthetical).
How the days are counted
- The day you receive the item is not counted. Civil Act Article 157 (the first day is excluded) — the day after receipt is day 1. So a 7-day period ends on "day of receipt + 7 days".
- Months are counted by the calendar. Civil Act Article 160 — the period ends on the day before the date that matches the day counting started (the day after receipt). If that month has no such date, it ends on the last day of that month.
- If the last day is a Saturday or a public holiday, the period runs to the next day. Civil Act Article 161 — this calculator only handles Saturdays and Sundays. If a public holiday falls on the last day, the real deadline is longer.
Change-of-mind examples
| Case | Received | Last day |
|---|---|---|
| Received on a Monday | Mon, Oct 19, 2026 | Mon, Oct 26, 2026 |
| Received on a Saturday (the last day is a Saturday too) | Sat, Oct 17, 2026 | Sat, Oct 24, 2026 → weekend, so Mon, Oct 26, 2026 |
| Received at the end of the month | Wed, Oct 28, 2026 | Wed, Nov 4, 2026 |
Examples for an item that differs from the ad
| Case | Received | Last day |
|---|---|---|
| Noticed 5 days after receiving | Thu, Jan 15, 2026 Noticed Tue, Jan 20, 2026 | Thu, Feb 19, 2026 The 30 days from noticing come first |
| Noticed two and a half months after receiving | Thu, Jan 15, 2026 Noticed Wed, Apr 1, 2026 | Wed, Apr 15, 2026 3 months from the day you received it |
| Received on November 29 (there is no February 30) | Mon, Nov 29, 2027 | Tue, Feb 29, 2028 3 months from the day you received it |
| Received on February 28 | Sat, Feb 28, 2026 | Sun, May 31, 2026 → weekend, so Mon, Jun 1, 2026 3 months from the day you received it |
If you receive an item on February 28, the 3-month deadline is May 31, not May 28: counting starts on March 1, so the period ends on the day before June 1 (in 2026 May 31 is a Sunday, so it actually runs to June 1). The dates in the tables come from the same function as the calculator on this page.
Some items cannot be returned
- The item was damaged or lost through your fault (opening the packaging to check the contents is fine)
- You used it, or used part of it, and its value dropped sharply, or enough time has passed that it is hard to resell
- Copyable goods (music, software and so on) whose packaging you opened, or digital content whose delivery has started
There are further cases set by presidential decree. However, for the second and third cases above, you can still return the item if the seller did not clearly mark that returns are not allowed in a place that is easy to see, such as the packaging, or did not take a step such as offering a trial product (Article 17(2) proviso and (6)). If the item differs from the advertisement, you can return it within the Article 17(3) period regardless of these limits.
When to use it
Use it when a parcel has arrived and you are not sure how long you can still return it, or when the item differs from the product page and you want to know whether it can still be returned. Putting the last day in your return request to the seller keeps the conversation short.
Basis: Act on the Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce, etc., Article 17; Civil Act Articles 157, 160 and 161 (Korean text on the National Law Information Center, checked in October 2026). Official English translations are published by the Korea Law Translation Center and may lag behind the Korean text. This calculation is a guide to the statutory periods, not legal advice. Whether the Act applies to your purchase (for example one from a seller outside Korea) is not something this calculator can decide.
Frequently asked questions
Isn't it counted from the order date?
No. When the goods arrive later, the count starts from the day you receive them (Article 17(1)(1), proviso). Counting from the order date makes you think the deadline is shorter by the shipping time.
The 7th day is a Sunday.
Under Civil Act Article 161, if the last day of a period is a Saturday or a public holiday, it runs to the next day. The calculator takes Saturdays and Sundays into account and shows the Monday as well. Check public holidays separately.
The shop says I can return within 30 days.
If the shop promises a longer period than the law, that period applies. This calculator shows the minimum the law guarantees.
Are the dates I enter saved?
No. The calculation happens only in your browser; nothing is sent to a server or stored.
More free tools
Add it to your home screen and it opens like an app — after the first visit it works offline too. What you type never leaves your device.