Have you ever received books or Christmas cards in the post with an invoice, when you never ordered these? Or had a door salesman leave his goods with you to test out, and the company then sent you an invoice even though you never confirmed that you wanted to buy the goods?

To discourage these unethical business practices, the Act allows consumers to have unsolicited (not asked for) goods returned at the suppliers risk and expense. This includes where they received a greater quantity than they asked for (a consumer needs to pay only for what they asked).

However, goods delivered as a result of a genuine mistake are not unsolicited goods.

Where the supplier does not collect the goods within 20 business days of receipt by the consumer or the supplier being notified to collect the goods, the consumer can keep the unsolicited goods.