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YES

As of 13 August 2026, AI can write a returns policy for your UK shop.

This still needs a person who signs their name to it.

Can you do it?

5 minutesto a draft.

1 hourto something you’d act on.

Cost, all in£0

Skill neededchat-fluent

Who has to check ita professional

What the alternative costsA purpose-built alternative is Termly, which generates terms and compliance documents and keeps them updated.

If this goes wrong, customers may be given misleading terms and your shop may have to correct refunds or handle a complaint or dispute.

What to actually do

  1. Hand it to a person

    The route this page recommends

    Someone with a licence or accountable authority has to sign this before it counts.

  2. Use a tool built for this

    Second choice

  3. Do it yourself

    The distant third

    A chat interface, chat-fluent skill, and roughly 1 hour until you can act on the result.

    How to actually do it

    1. 1. Open your current checkout, delivery information, order confirmation and refund process, and copy the exact customer-facing wording into one document.
    2. 2. Gather your shop name, legal business name, contact details, products, sales channels, delivery countries, delivery charges, refund method and return-postage rules.
    3. 3. List any product categories that may need separate treatment, including personalised goods, digital products, hygiene-sensitive goods, sale items and faulty or misdescribed goods.
    4. 4. Paste the gathered information into the prompt and replace every bracketed slot, writing "none" where a category does not apply.
    5. 5. Ask the model for the draft, missing-facts list, solicitor questions and source links, then remove or correct any statement that does not match your actual shop process.
    6. 6. Compare each refund, cancellation, delivery, exclusion and return-postage statement against current GOV.UK consumer guidance and your live checkout and customer emails.
    7. 7. Send the draft, the model's flagged questions and the source links to a UK solicitor for a compliance check before publishing it.
    8. 8. Publish the approved version in your website policy area and checkout, then compare the live page with the version the solicitor checked.

    Prompt

    Draft a plain-English returns and refunds policy for my UK shop using the information below. Do not invent any facts, legal rights, deadlines, exclusions or fees. Distinguish clearly between statutory consumer rights and any additional returns policy I choose to offer. Cover online and in-store sales separately where relevant, including cancellation, faulty or misdescribed goods, refunds, return postage, delivery, exclusions, exchanges, sale items, personalised goods, hygiene-sensitive goods and digital products where applicable. Flag every answer I have not supplied and every point that needs checking against current UK rules. Use current GOV.UK guidance as the legal reference where possible and include source links, but do not present this as legal advice. Do not claim the policy is legally compliant. After the draft, provide: (1) a list of missing business facts, (2) a list of legal questions for a UK solicitor, and (3) a checklist of statements I must compare with my actual checkout, delivery process and refund process. Shop details: [shop name and legal business name]. Contact details: [returns email, postal address and customer service hours]. Products: [what you sell]. Sales channels: [website, marketplace, physical shop or other]. Delivery countries: [countries]. Delivery method and charges: [details]. Current returns process: [details]. Refund method and timing: [details]. Return postage policy: [details]. Excluded products: [details or none]. Exchanges and sale items: [details]. Digital or personalised products: [details or none]. Governing business location: [England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland or other].

    Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.

What it gets wrong

  • AI cannot determine every legal consequence of your product type, sales channel and fulfilment arrangement from a short description.
  • AI cannot take responsibility for an unlawful or misleading policy; your shop remains accountable.
  • AI cannot confirm that current UK rules, exceptions and enforcement expectations have been applied correctly without specialist checking.
  • AI cannot know whether your written policy matches what your checkout, staff and refund system actually do.
  • AI cannot replace a solicitor's judgement where the policy involves unusual products, cross-border sales or a serious customer dispute.

Even on a YES, the friction has a name: legal accountability, verification cost and judgement under ambiguity.

How we scored this

Five axes, each scored nought to two by hand: ten means AI carries the task cleanly, and the thresholds that turn a total into YES, PARTLY or NO are published in the methodology. Each axis name links to its definition.

AxisScore (0–2)
Output2
Inputs2
Verification1
Liability1
Effort delta2
Total8 / 10

The methodology and its thresholds are published in full.

FAQ

Can AI write a legally compliant returns policy?
AI can draft the wording, but it cannot guarantee that the policy is legally compliant for your shop. This is not professional advice, so ask a UK solicitor to check the final policy before you publish it.
What information does AI need to write a returns policy?
Give it your products, sales channels, delivery process, return postage rules, refund process, exclusions, exchanges and business contact details. Include any personalised, digital, hygiene-sensitive or sale products because they may need separate treatment.
Can I use ChatGPT for my UK returns policy?
Yes, you can use a chatbot to produce a useful first draft from your shop's actual information. Check every operational detail against your checkout and refund process, then have a UK solicitor check the legal wording.
Do I need a solicitor to write a returns policy?
You can write or generate a first draft without a solicitor, but AI cannot carry the legal responsibility for it. This is not professional advice, and a UK solicitor is the right person to assess a policy where the products, exclusions or sales arrangements are complex.

Nearby answers

All Terms & policies rulings

Assessed by gpt-5.6-luna (gpt-5.6-luna) on 2026-08-13, second-checked by an independent model. Wrong somewhere? Email [email protected] and it gets re-checked.

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