Unsolicited Goods: What You May Keep, and the Marketing Trick That Is Void

Two things arrive unasked in South African households. Parcels nobody ordered, and subscriptions nobody agreed to.

The Consumer Protection Act treats them very differently, and in both cases far more favourably to you than most people assume. In the first case you may usually keep the goods. In the second, the agreement was never valid to begin with.

Goods you did not order

Section 21 of the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 covers unsolicited goods and services. Several situations fall inside it, and the common thread is that you did not ask for what turned up.

Goods count as unsolicited where a supplier leaves them with you during direct marketing "without requiring or arranging payment". Also caught: where you have an existing supply arrangement and the supplier starts sending you materially different goods from the ones previously supplied, without your express consent. That second limb matters for anything on a standing order — a wine club that changes what it ships, a supplement subscription that substitutes a different product.

Once goods are unsolicited, section 21 gives you the choice. You may:

"retain the goods", or
"return the goods to the apparent supplier or deliverer at the risk and expense of the supplier"

Note the last four words. Returning is at the supplier's risk and expense, not yours. You are not obliged to pay for courier costs, and you do not carry the risk if the parcel is lost on the way back.

And the supplier may not bill you for any of it:

"A supplier must not demand or assert any right to … attempt to collect, any payment"

for unsolicited goods. If you have already paid, section 21 lets you recover that amount, with interest calculated under the Prescribed Rate of Interest Act — currently the repo rate plus 3,5 percentage points, as our guide to the prescribed rate of interest explains.

The clock on a parcel delivered in error

A genuine misdelivery is not the same as a marketing gambit, and section 21 deals with it separately — but still on a timetable that favours the person holding the box.

Where goods are delivered to the wrong person or in error, the supplier has 10 business days to give notice and 20 business days to recover them. For misdelivered goods, recovery must happen within the following 20 business days after notification.

If the supplier does not act within those windows:

"The property in those goods passes unconditionally to the person"

subject to any third party's rights in them.

That is the answer to a question people agonise over. A parcel arrives that is not yours, you cannot get anyone to collect it, and months pass while you feel vaguely criminal for having it in the hallway. The Act gives the supplier a fixed period to sort it out, and when that period runs out the goods become yours, unconditionally.

Two practical caveats worth taking seriously:

Tell them. The windows work best when they start running. A short written message — "a parcel addressed to someone else was delivered to my address on ; please collect it" — starts the clock and puts you unambiguously in the right.

Third-party rights survive. The property passes "subject to any right or valid claim that another person may have". If the item is stolen, or subject to someone else's security interest, section 21 does not launder it. Keeping a parcel a courier misdelivered is one thing; keeping something you know to be stolen is another.

The subscription that formed by silence

Section 31 deals with a different trick, and it deals with it far more bluntly than most people realise.

Negative option marketing is the practice of structuring an offer so that the agreement — or a change to an existing agreement — comes into existence unless you actively say no. The free trial that converts to a paid plan. The insurance add-on that is applied "unless you opt out". The service tier that upgrades itself and appears on next month's bill.

Section 31(1) prohibits a supplier from promoting goods or services, offering to enter into or modify an agreement, or inducing a person to accept goods or services, on the basis that the supply or the agreement or modification

"will automatically come into existence, unless the consumer declines such offer or inducement"

And then the part that matters:

31(2) "An agreement purportedly entered into as a result of an offer or inducement contemplated in subsection (1) is void"

31(3) "A modification of an agreement purportedly agreed to as a result of an offer or inducement contemplated in subsection (1) is void"

Void, not voidable. That distinction carries the whole practical weight of the section. A voidable agreement exists until somebody cancels it — you would have to give notice, serve it properly, and probably argue about a penalty. A void agreement never came into existence. There is nothing to cancel, no notice period to run, and no cancellation penalty to negotiate, because there is no agreement.

The same applies to a modification. A supplier that upgraded your package "unless you declined" has not lawfully modified anything. The modification is void, and the original terms stand.

This is the answer to the most common complaint in South African consumer telecoms and insurance: "I never agreed to this, they just added it." If it was added on an opt-out basis, section 31(3) says the modification is void.

How the two sections work together

They cover the same underlying behaviour from two directions.

	Section 21	Section 31
What it covers	Goods or services that arrive unasked	An agreement or modification that forms unless you decline
Your position	You may keep them or return them at the supplier's risk and expense	There is no agreement at all — it is void
What the supplier may charge	Nothing, and you can recover what you paid with interest	Nothing, because nothing was agreed
What you must do	Optionally give notice, then wait out the supplier's window	Nothing — but say so in writing when they bill you

A "free trial" that ships you a product and then starts billing is often both at once: unsolicited goods under section 21, and a void agreement under section 31.

What to do

If a parcel arrives that you did not order: Do not pay for it, and do not pay to send it back. Write to the supplier, briefly and dated, saying what arrived and when, and that you require them to collect it at their own risk and expense. Keep the message. Then wait out the statutory window.

If your bill grows a line you never agreed to: Ask, in writing, for the date and the mechanism of your consent. If the answer is that you were notified and did not object, quote section 31(3) — the modification is void, not merely cancellable — and ask for a reversal rather than a cancellation.

If you have already paid: Section 21 lets you recover the amount with interest at the prescribed rate. Ask for both. Suppliers habitually refund the capital and hope you forget the rest.

If they will not engage: Escalate to the National Consumer Commission or your provincial consumer affairs office. Where the supplier is a financial institution, our guide to where to complain about a bank, insurer or credit provider sets out the right forum.

Two adjacent rights are worth knowing at the same time. If the goods you did order turn out to be faulty, that is the six-month defective goods right. If the problem is a contract you validly signed and now want out of, that is cancelling a fixed-term agreement on 20 business days' notice. And if you are paying something off before delivery, the rules are different again — see lay-by. Suppliers can find their side of all of this in Consumer Protection Act obligations for a small business.

Frequently asked

A company sent me a product I never ordered and then invoiced me. Do I have to pay? No. Section 21 says a supplier must not demand or assert any right to collect payment for unsolicited goods, and you may retain them.

Do I have to post it back? No. If you choose to return them, section 21 puts the return at the risk and expense of the supplier. You are not required to fund or carry the risk of the return.

A parcel for my neighbour was delivered to me and nobody will fetch it. Can I keep it? Once the supplier's statutory window has passed — 10 business days to give notice and 20 business days to recover — the property passes unconditionally, subject to any valid claim another person has in the goods. Give written notice first so the clock plainly starts.

My insurer added a benefit I never asked for and billed me. If it was added on an "unless you decline" basis, section 31(3) makes that modification void. Ask for a reversal, not a cancellation, and put the section number in the message.

My free trial converted to a paid subscription. Is that legal? If the conversion happened because you did not actively decline, section 31(2) makes the resulting agreement void. That is stronger than a right to cancel, because there is nothing to cancel.

I already paid for goods I never ordered. Can I get it back? Yes, and with interest calculated under the Prescribed Rate of Interest Act. Ask for both amounts.

Does this apply to a business that receives unsolicited goods? The CPA's protections turn on whether the transaction falls within its scope, and several provisions exclude dealings between juristic persons. A sole proprietor is generally in a different position from a company, so check the scope before relying on section 21 in a business context.