Right of withdrawal: information notice and model form
Vicou Studio, trading name of Victor Rouvreau, sole trader (entrepreneur individuel, EI), micro-entreprise regime 68 rue de la Gare, 45000 Orléans, France · contact@vicou.studio SIREN 901 766 451 · SIRET 901 766 451 00016 VAT not applicable, article 293 B of the French General Tax Code (code général des impôts). Should this regime cease to apply, the prices of services not yet ordered will be amended accordingly.
Version of 1 August 2026. This notice forms an integral part of the terms and conditions of sale to which it is annexed.
The three packages, as they are named on vicou.studio and in the quote. “First Site: the Method”: you choose a template, we install it, you receive the videos and a personal space, and you fill the site in yourself. “I Build It For You”: you choose a template, you send us your content, we build the site. “Signature, one of one”: your site is designed for you, without a template from the catalog. “First Site: the Method” is the only package that includes the videos and the personal space. On the other two, no video and no personal space are supplied, unless the corresponding paid option is bought separately.
0. Who this notice applies to, and why French law
This notice sets out a right that comes from French law, because the contract is governed by French law (article 21 of the terms and conditions of sale). Vicou Studio is a French business, and it sells from France.
Where you live does not remove this right. If you are a consumer, this notice applies to you whether you live in France, elsewhere in the European Union, or outside it.
- In the European Union, you also keep the mandatory protections of your own country of residence. The fourteen-day withdrawal period is the same across the Union, so in practice nothing changes for you.
- Outside the European Union, French law still governs the contract, so this notice applies to you in full. You may in addition hold rights under your own local law: those add to what is written here, they do not replace it.
What does change is whether you are a consumer or a trader. A trader does not benefit from the fourteen-day right anywhere, and most clients who find Vicou Studio through a freelance marketplace order for their business. Section 1 below is what decides your case, not your country.
1. Who may withdraw
1.1. You are a consumer. A consumer is any natural person acting for purposes which do not fall within the scope of their commercial, industrial, craft, professional or agricultural activity (introductory article of the French Consumer Code, code de la consommation). That is your case in particular if your business is not yet registered on the day of the order. This document then applies to you in full.
1.2. You are a trader. If you order for the purposes of a professional activity you already carry on, you do not benefit from the fourteen-day right of withdrawal: that right protects consumers.
There is one reservation. The protective provisions are extended to contracts concluded away from business premises between traders, on the twofold condition that the subject matter of the contract does not fall within the scope of the main activity of the trader approached and that the latter employs five employees or fewer (article L221-3 of the French Consumer Code). A contract concluded away from business premises is one concluded in the simultaneous physical presence of both parties, somewhere other than the trader’s premises. Vicou Studio contracts exclusively at a distance, and a video call is not physical presence. This reservation therefore does not apply to our contracts.
1.3. Where there is doubt, we apply the consumer regime, which is more favorable to you.
2. The period and when it starts
You have fourteen days to withdraw without having to give any reason (article L221-18 of the French Consumer Code).
For a supply of services, this period does not run from delivery but from the conclusion of the contract. The contract is concluded at a single moment: the validation of your order on vicou.studio, that is to say the moment when you tick the boxes in section 4 and confirm your payment. That moment is time-stamped and repeated in your order confirmation email, including where the order follows a quote.
Counting the period (article L221-19 of the French Consumer Code): the day of conclusion does not count; the period runs from the first hour of the first day to the last hour of the fourteenth; if it expires on a Saturday, a Sunday or a public holiday, it is extended to the next working day.
Example: order validated on Tuesday 3 March, period running from Wednesday 4 March to Tuesday 17 March inclusive.
3. How to exercise your right
Inform us before the period expires, by one of these means (article L221-21 of the French Consumer Code):
- the model form reproduced in part 2, returned by email to contact@vicou.studio or by post to 68 rue de la Gare, 45000 Orléans, France;
- any other unambiguous statement. An email is enough. A sentence such as “I withdraw from my order of 3 March” is enough. A request to postpone, a question about timescales or silence do not amount to withdrawal.
We confirm receipt of your request by email. The burden of proving that the right of withdrawal has been exercised lies with you (article L221-22 of the French Consumer Code): keep the email you sent and our confirmation.
4. Starting before the end of the period: your express waiver
This is the normal case with us. On “First Site: the Method”, your access details are sent to you within 24 hours, by hand. If we had to wait for the end of the period, nobody would be served before the fifteenth day. The delivery timescales are set out in the terms and conditions of sale and on your quote.
The boxes. For performance to begin before the end of the period, the law requires your express request and your acknowledgment that the right is lost (articles L221-25 and L221-28 of the French Consumer Code). These statements are presented to you as follows:
☐ 1. I have read and I accept the terms and conditions of sale and this notice.
☐ 2. I expressly request that Vicou Studio begin performance of the service before the end of the fourteen-day withdrawal period. I acknowledge that if I withdraw once performance has begun, I will have to pay for the service already supplied, in proportion to the total price agreed, and that I will lose my right of withdrawal if the service is fully performed before the end of the period.
☐ 3. (orders including the videos and the personal space) I expressly request that the supply of the videos and of access to the personal space begin before the end of the fourteen-day period, and I acknowledge that from the moment they are made available I will lose my right of withdrawal over those items.
Where and how they are obtained. These boxes appear on the order summary screen of vicou.studio, before the redirection to the payment page. The payment page on its own obtains none of these consents. The boxes are not pre-ticked, they are independent of one another, there is no single box amounting to global acceptance, and the payment button stays inactive for as long as those that concern you are not ticked.
How the proof is kept. At the moment of validation, the time stamp, the order reference, the version of this document and the exact wording of the boxes as displayed on that day are recorded. Your order confirmation email repeats these statements word for word and constitutes confirmation on a durable medium.
You are not obliged to tick boxes 2 and 3. If you do not tick them, we begin nothing before the fifteenth day.
Finally, no sum may be claimed from you if your express request was not obtained in this form, or if you were not informed before the order of the obligation to pay for the service supplied in the event of withdrawal during performance (article L221-25 of the French Consumer Code). This section constitutes that prior information.
5. What happens if you withdraw
5.1. Refund. We refund the sums paid, without undue delay and at the latest within fourteen days of receiving your decision, by the same means of payment and at no cost to you (article L221-24 of the French Consumer Code), subject only to 5.2.
5.2. Amount due for the work already done. If you asked for an early start and you withdraw before performance is complete, you owe us an amount corresponding to the service supplied up to your decision, in proportion to the total price agreed (article L221-25 of the French Consumer Code). It is calculated on the steps actually completed, by reference to the scope described on your quote. It can never exceed either the total price or the value of the service actually supplied. It is not a penalty. Where this amount exceeds the sums already paid, the difference is invoiced and payable within fourteen days; in the opposite case, the balance is refunded to you.
5.3. Effects on the site and the files. Withdrawal brings the contract to an end. Within seven days: the site is taken offline, the technical access we opened for you is revoked, the assignment of rights and any license granted over the deliverables lapse, and you may not keep, exploit or reuse all or part of the deliverables. Items over which the right of withdrawal is already extinguished under section 6 are not concerned: they remain yours and remain payable. See also the terms and conditions of sale, effects of withdrawal.
6. The cases where the right of withdrawal is extinguished
6.1. The videos and the personal space (“First Site: the Method”, and the option bought separately). This section concerns only these two cases. The videos and the personal space are digital content supplied without a tangible medium. The right of withdrawal cannot be exercised over such content where performance has begun before the end of the period, on three cumulative conditions: your prior express consent, your acknowledgment that the right is lost, and confirmation of your agreement sent on a durable medium (article L221-28, 13° of the French Consumer Code). That confirmation is sent to you by email before any access details are sent. From the moment the videos and the personal space are made available, those items are no longer subject to withdrawal.
Where the option is bought after the site has been delivered, it gives rise to a new order, with its own fourteen-day period and the same collection of consent on a screen carrying the boxes.
6.2. The service has been fully performed before the end of the period. The right of withdrawal cannot be exercised over a service fully performed before the end of the period, where performance began at your express request and with your acknowledgment that the right is lost (article L221-28, 1° of the French Consumer Code).
We apply this rule without extending it. On “I Build It For You” and “Signature, one of one”, six months of email support are owed to you from the day the site goes live. For as long as that support runs, the service is not fully performed. On those two packages, your right of withdrawal therefore survives until the fourteenth day, even if your site is already live, and the amount due is calculated under section 5.2, with the support not yet used deducted from it. The extinction provided for in this section 6.2 is the exception, not the rule.
7. What this document does not cover
The hosting, the domain name and the platform subscription are taken out and paid for by you, in your name, on your own accounts, directly with their providers. These costs are recurring and borne by you: in the order of 10 EUR per month for hosting, and in the order of 30 EUR per month of subscription for a Shopify online shop. As these contracts are not concluded with us, their cancellation and refund are governed by each provider’s terms.
The licenses of the components used to build your website are those stated on your quote.
The demonstrations presented on vicou.studio are presentation mock-ups, not the delivered website.
8. Complaints and mediation
Any complaint may be sent to us at contact@vicou.studio, or by post to 68 rue de la Gare, 45000 Orléans, France. We undertake to reply to it.
If our reply does not satisfy you and you have the status of consumer, you may use our consumer mediator free of charge (articles L612-1 and L616-1 of the French Consumer Code).
Mandatory prior step: you must first have sent us a written complaint. Your request for mediation is admissible only within the year following that written complaint.
SAS Médiation Solution, membership no. 50927/VM/2304 222 chemin de la Bergerie, 01800 Saint Jean de Niost, France Tel. 04 82 53 93 06 · contact@sasmediationsolution-conso.fr https://www.sasmediationsolution-conso.fr
Part 2. Model withdrawal form
Reproduced in accordance with the model set out in the annex to article R221-1 of the French Consumer Code, adapted to a supply of services.
(Please complete and return this form only if you wish to withdraw from the contract.)
To:
Vicou Studio, trading name of Victor Rouvreau, sole trader (entrepreneur individuel, EI) 68 rue de la Gare, 45000 Orléans, France contact@vicou.studio
I/we (*) hereby give notice (*) that I/we (*) withdraw from the contract for the supply of the service below:
Description of the service ordered: …………………………………….
Order or quote number: …………………………………….
Ordered on (*) / received on (*): …………………………………….
Name of consumer(s): …………………………………….
Address of consumer(s): …………………………………….
Signature of consumer(s) (only if this form is notified on paper): …………………………………….
Date: …………………………………….
(*) Delete as appropriate.
Use of this form is not compulsory: any unambiguous statement expressing your wish to withdraw is valid.