The simple version

There is a federal right to undo a sale within three business days, and it is attached to where the sale was solicited rather than to what was bought.

The test is whether the seller approached you away from its own premises and you said yes there. A shop you entered under your own steam is outside it.

Two different price floors apply, depending on whether you were at home or somewhere else, and six categories are carved out entirely.

The numbers

• The rule is 16 CFR Part 429, the Rule Concerning Cooling-Off Period for Sales Made at Homes or at Certain Other Locations. Read in the 2025 annual edition of the Code of Federal Regulations, dated January 1, 2025, via govinfo.
• Its credit line reads 60 FR 54186, October 20, 1995, as amended at 80 FR 1332, January 9, 2015.
• Price floors in section 429.0(a): $25 or more if the sale is made at the buyer's residence, or $130 or more if made at locations other than the buyer's residence, whether under single or multiple contracts.
• Covered locations named in the rule: the buyer's residence, facilities rented on a temporary or short-term basis such as hotel or motel rooms, convention centers, fairgrounds and restaurants, the buyer's workplace, and dormitory lounges.
• The definition covers sales the seller personally solicits, including those in response to or following an invitation by the buyer. An invitation does not remove the right.
• Business day in section 429.0(f): any calendar day except Sunday or any federal holiday, with the rule naming New Year's Day, Presidents' Day, Martin Luther King's Birthday, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans' Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day.
• The required wording in section 429.1 tells the buyer they may cancel at any time prior to midnight of the third business day after the date of the transaction.
• Section 429.1(c) requires the seller to fill in a cancellation date no earlier than the third business day following the transaction before handing over the notice.
• On a valid cancellation, section 429.1(g) gives the seller 10 business days to refund all payments, return any goods traded in, and cancel and return any negotiable instrument. Section 429.1(i) gives the same 10 business days to say whether it will repossess or abandon delivered goods.
• The six exclusions in section 429.0(a): prior negotiations during the buyer's own visit to a retail establishment with a fixed permanent location; sales where the buyer already has a right of rescission under 15 U.S.C. 1635; a buyer-initiated bona fide immediate personal emergency with a handwritten signed waiver; sales conducted and consummated entirely by mail or telephone with no other contact; a buyer-initiated request to repair or maintain personal property; and real property, insurance, and securities or commodities sold by a broker-dealer registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
• Purchase price in section 429.0(e) is the total paid or to be paid, including all interest and service charges. Consumer goods or services in section 429.0(b) are those bought primarily for personal, family, or household purposes, including courses of instruction or training.
• Counting the three days under that definition, with no federal holiday in the span: sign on a Thursday and the counted days are Friday, Saturday and Monday, because Sunday drops out, which puts the deadline at midnight on Monday. Sign on a Friday and they are Saturday, Monday and Tuesday. Treating Saturday as a day off would push each deadline one day later than the rule does. That counting is ours, applied to the rule's definition.

Why the place of the sale decides everything

The rule is built around being approached rather than around changing your mind. Its subject is a seller who came to you, which is why a shop at a fixed address of its own sits outside it entirely.

That is also why the two price floors differ. At home the floor is low, and at a hotel room or a fairground it is more than five times higher, so an identical purchase can be covered in one setting and not the other.

The invitation point follows from the same logic. Asking a seller to come round does not convert the encounter into one at its own premises, so the right survives the invitation.

The actual math on 25 dollars against 130

The two floors are not close together. One setting carries a floor of 25 dollars and every other setting carries 130, which is 5.2 times the first.

So a 60 dollar purchase sits above the lower floor and below the higher one. Agree to it in your own home and the right attaches; agree to the same thing in a rented room or at a fairground and it does not.

The ratio and the 60 dollar illustration are ours, worked from the rule's two printed figures. The rule sets the floors and says nothing about any particular purchase.

What this means

If a seller came to you, look for the notice before anything else. The rule makes failing to hand it over a violation in itself, so its absence is information.

If you went to the seller, this particular right was never in play, and whatever you can do next comes from the store's own policy or from state law rather than from this rule.

The transferable habit is to find out what a familiar right is actually attached to. This one attaches to a place and a solicitation, not to regret.

What this is NOT

This article explains what the federal cooling-off rule at 16 CFR Part 429 covers and how its three business days are counted, read in the 2025 annual edition of the Code of Federal Regulations via govinfo on October 25, 2026. It is not legal advice, it is not a statement of anyone's rights or obligations, and nobody should rely on it in a dispute with a seller. It takes no position on whether the rule should be wider or narrower. It does not claim the rule reaches any particular sale, because whether it does depends on facts this article does not examine, including the six exclusions. The day counting in the math section is ours, applied to the rule's own definition of a business day; the rule states the deadline as midnight of the third business day and requires the seller to enter the actual date. We read an annual edition, which is a snapshot rather than a live text, so a later amendment would not appear in it, and we name no state law, no other federal rule, and no store policy, any of which may give rights this rule does not. The rule still lists sending a telegram among the ways to cancel, which indicates its age rather than a recommendation. This is not a political endorsement or criticism of anyone.

Sources

• 16 CFR 429.0, Definitions, Code of Federal Regulations 2025 annual edition, title 16 volume 1, dated January 1, 2025, via govinfo. Price floors, covered locations, the invitation language, the six exclusions, and the definitions of business day, purchase price and consumer goods or services. Read October 25, 2026.
• 16 CFR 429.1, The Rule, same edition. The required cancellation wording, the seller's duty to enter a date no earlier than the third business day, and the 10 business day refund and repossession duties. Read October 25, 2026.