14-Day Cooling-Off Period: UK Competition Ticket Refunds

You've just paid £5 for three tickets into a car draw, then spotted a cheaper bundle on another site five minutes later. Can you cancel? We get asked this more than almost anything else about UK prize competitions, and the honest answer isn't the one most people expect. Here's what the law actually says, not what a forum comment guessed.

Do You Get a 14-Day Cooling-Off Period on Competition Tickets?

In most cases, no — competition ticket purchases are excluded from the standard 14-day cancellation right that applies to online shopping. The right most people have heard of comes from the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, which gives you two weeks to change your mind on most goods and services bought online or by phone. But that regulation carries a specific schedule of exclusions, and services tied to gambling, and services with a fixed date or period of performance, both sit on that exclusion list.

Competition entries are almost always sold with a defined closing date and a scheduled draw, which is exactly the kind of 'specific date of performance' the exclusion was written for. That's why, when we checked the terms and conditions across a dozen UK competition and instant-win sites, every single one stated entries were non-refundable once payment had cleared, aside from cases required by law. This isn't a shady industry trick — it's a predictable consequence of how the underlying regulation is drafted.

Why Competitions Are Treated Differently to Normal Online Shopping

Think about why the 14-day right exists at all: it's there so you can inspect a jumper or a kettle before committing, the same way you could in a shop. A competition ticket doesn't work like that. The moment you pay, you're entered into a draw with a fixed number of participants and a fixed prize pool. Letting people cancel after entry, especially close to a draw date, would let entrants game the numbers, which is precisely the scenario regulators wanted to avoid when they wrote the leisure-activity exclusion.

What Are the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, and Do They Cover Prize Draws?

They're the main UK law behind online cancellation rights, but Schedule 3 specifically carves out gambling-related contracts and services with a fixed performance date. The regulations were brought in to implement the EU Consumer Rights Directive and they still apply post-Brexit as retained UK law. They cover a huge range of everyday online purchases: clothes, electronics, subscriptions, most services booked in advance.

Schedule 3 lists what's excluded from the cancellation right in Regulations 27–29. Two entries matter here: contracts for gambling within the meaning of the Gambling Act 2005, and contracts for services related to leisure activities where performance is tied to a specific date or period. Most UK prize competitions are structured to sit outside the Gambling Act's definition of gambling in the first place — that's the whole point of offering a free postal entry route or a genuine skill question, since it keeps the operator out of Gambling Commission licensing. But the leisure-activity exclusion still bites, because a competition with a fixed draw date reads a lot like a concert ticket or a festival pass in the eyes of the regulation, and those are excluded too.

The Gambling Exemption Explained

It's worth separating two different legal questions that people mix up. One is whether the competition is legally gambling under the Gambling Act 2005 — most aren't, because of the free entry route or skill element. The other is whether the Consumer Contracts Regulations' cancellation right applies — and here, the fixed-date exclusion tends to apply regardless of the gambling question. So you can have a perfectly legal, non-gambling prize competition that still has no statutory cooling-off period, simply because of when the draw happens.

Can You Get a Refund If a Competition Draw Is Cancelled or Delayed?

Yes — if the promoter cancels, materially changes, or fails to run the draw as advertised, you're generally entitled to a refund under ordinary contract and consumer protection law. This is completely separate from the cooling-off question. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 requires services to be performed with reasonable care and skill and to match what was described. If a site promises a draw on 30 September and simply doesn't run it, or swaps the advertised prize for something of lower value without agreement, that's a breach of contract, not a cooling-off scenario.

In practice, most legitimate operators build a cancellation clause into their own terms — reserving the right to extend a closing date if ticket sales are low, or to cancel and refund everyone if a minimum threshold isn't met. That's not illegal, provided it's disclosed upfront and actually honoured. What crosses the line is silently pushing back a draw date repeatedly with no communication, or changing the prize after entries have already closed. If either happens, you have a straightforward right to ask for your money back, and a right to complain to Trading Standards if you're refused.

We've written before about the mechanics behind free postal entry, which is the route that keeps most UK prize draws outside gambling law — see our free postal entry legitimacy check for how that structure is meant to work in practice.

What Happens to Your Money If a Competition Site Goes Bust?

If the operator becomes insolvent, you're an unsecured creditor with no automatic right to your money back, which is why checking a site's track record matters more than checking a refund clause. This is the scenario people worry about least and should worry about most. A refund clause is only as good as the company behind it. If a competition operator enters administration or simply disappears, your entry fee sits in the same pool as every other unpaid supplier, and there's no statutory scheme protecting competition entrants the way the Financial Services Compensation Scheme protects some savers.

Client Money and Safeguarding

Some larger operators voluntarily hold entry money in ring-fenced accounts until a draw closes, only releasing funds for prize fulfilment once the draw is confirmed to have happened correctly. This isn't a legal requirement for prize competitions the way it is for, say, travel bookings under ATOL. It's a business choice, and it's worth looking for evidence of it — a clear statement in the terms, a named safeguarding provider, or a published history of prizes actually being delivered — rather than taking it on trust. We've covered the identity and payout side of this in our piece on KYC checks on instant-win cash payouts, which is the other half of knowing your money is going somewhere accountable.

Does the Free Postal Entry Route Give You Any Extra Protection?

No — postal entrants have exactly the same chance of winning as paying entrants, but because no money changes hands, there's nothing to refund and no cooling-off question at all. The free entry route exists for a legal reason, not a customer-service one: UK gambling law requires that a genuine prize competition offer a way to enter without paying, or include a real skill element, otherwise it risks being classed as an illegal lottery under the Gambling Act 2005.

Postal Entries and Equal Chance Rules

A properly run competition has to give postal entrants an equal chance of winning compared with paid entrants — the same draw, the same odds, no second-class treatment. If a site's terms suggest postal entrants are entered into a separate, smaller draw, or a slower one, that's a red flag worth checking closely, because it undermines the entire legal basis the operator is relying on to avoid being classed as gambling. Since postal entry involves no payment, there's simply no refund mechanism to discuss — your only real protection there is transparency about how entries are logged and whether the draw genuinely treats both routes the same.

Can You Use Section 75 or a Chargeback to Get Your Money Back?

Yes, in specific circumstances — Section 75 and chargeback schemes exist for cases of non-delivery, misrepresentation, or fraud, not for simple changes of mind. These two protections often get confused with a general refund right, but they're narrower and more useful in exactly the scenario where a cooling-off period wouldn't help you anyway: when something has actually gone wrong.

Section 75 Consumer Credit Act

If you paid by credit card for something costing between £100 and £30,000, Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 makes your card provider jointly liable with the retailer for breach of contract or misrepresentation. Most single competition ticket purchases fall well under £100, so this rarely applies directly — but if you'd bought a bundle of tickets or a subscription package pushing the total credit card transaction over that threshold, and the draw was never run as promised, Section 75 is worth raising with your bank.

Chargeback Via Debit Card

Chargeback isn't a legal right — it's a scheme run by card networks like Visa and Mastercard, available on both debit and credit cards, with no minimum spend threshold. It's the more realistic option for most competition ticket disputes, particularly where a site has taken payment and simply never delivered the service described, such as a draw that was quietly cancelled with no refund offered. Banks usually ask for evidence you tried to resolve it with the trader first, so always contact the operator directly before escalating.

What Should a Legitimate Site's Refund Terms Actually Say?

Clear terms name the exact non-refundable rule, explain what happens if a draw is cancelled, and state how postal entries are handled — vague wording is the warning sign, not the refusal to refund itself. A 'no refunds' policy on its own isn't a red flag; as we've covered, it's standard and legally defensible for competition entries. What matters is everything around it.

Signs of a Fair Refund Clause

Look for terms that clearly state entries are non-refundable once processed, but that promise a full refund if the operator itself cancels the draw, changes the prize materially, or fails to reach a stated minimum entry threshold. Fair terms also explain what happens to your entry if you were charged in error — genuine mistakes like duplicate payments should always be refundable, and any legitimate site will say so plainly rather than burying it.

Red Flag Clauses to Avoid

Be wary of terms that reserve the right to cancel or alter a draw 'at any time for any reason' with no refund obligation attached, or that don't mention a free postal entry route at all despite implying tickets buy chances in a game of chance. Also watch for sites that don't publish terms before you enter card details — legitimate operators put refund and cancellation terms somewhere you can read them before you pay, not after.

How Do Refund Policies Compare Across UK Competition Sites?

Most established UK operators follow the same broad pattern — non-refundable paid entries, a full refund if the draw is cancelled, and a free postal route — but how clearly each states it varies a lot. We compared the publicly published terms of several well-known UK operators against the pattern set out above.

The consistent thread across the table is that no site offers a discretionary change-of-mind refund — that's the industry norm, not a Lucky Turbo-specific policy. Where sites genuinely differ is in how transparently they explain what happens when something goes wrong, and that's the detail worth reading before you pay, not after. If you want to see how mid-size operators stack up on value rather than terms, our Elite Competitions vs Good Life Plus comparison looks at that angle directly.

What Can You Do If a Site Refuses a Refund You're Owed?

Raise it with the operator in writing first, then escalate to your card provider, and only go to Trading Standards or the small claims track if both fail. Most disputes never need to go past step one, especially with operators who have a real customer service function and a reputation to protect.

Step 1: Raise It Directly

Email the operator, quote the specific clause in their own terms that you believe entitles you to a refund, and give them a reasonable window — a week is standard — to respond. Keep the email as your paper trail; screenshots of the terms as they appeared when you entered are useful too, since terms can be edited later.

Step 2: Escalate to Your Card Issuer

If the operator refuses or ignores you, contact your bank about a chargeback, or Section 75 if the transaction and card type qualify. Provide your written correspondence with the operator as evidence you tried to resolve it directly — banks generally want to see this before they'll act.

Step 3: Trading Standards or Small Claims

For genuine breach of contract that a chargeback doesn't resolve, you can report the trader to Trading Standards via the Citizens Advice consumer service, and pursue the money through the small claims court if the sum justifies it. Neither route gives you a guaranteed outcome, but both create a formal record that matters if the operator has a pattern of doing this to other entrants too.

Where Do You Report a Competition Site That Won't Play Fair?

Citizens Advice and Trading Standards handle general consumer disputes, the Advertising Standards Authority handles misleading promotion, and the Gambling Commission only gets involved if the competition is actually operating as unlicensed gambling. Knowing which body fits your complaint saves a lot of wasted time.

If the issue is a broken refund promise or a draw that was never run, Citizens Advice's consumer service is the front door — they log complaints and can refer patterns of bad behaviour on to local Trading Standards teams for investigation. If the issue is how the competition was advertised — misleading odds claims, a prize that doesn't match what was shown, exaggerated urgency messaging — that's a matter for the Advertising Standards Authority, which regulates UK ad content regardless of whether gambling law applies.

The Gambling Commission's remit is narrower than people assume: it only has jurisdiction if the competition is actually gambling under the Gambling Act 2005, meaning no genuine free entry route or skill element exists. Most legitimate prize competitions, including the free-entry-route draws we list across our cash competitions, sit outside its remit entirely because of that structure, so a refund dispute on a properly run competition won't be something the Commission investigates. None of this is a substitute for proper legal advice on your specific situation — for anything involving significant sums, Citizens Advice or a solicitor is the right next call, not a blog post.