Display your store policies and other legal information in Germany

Merchants who sell in Germany often display the following types of legal information on their online store:

Types of legal information to display.
Legal informationDescription
Terms of ServiceRules that customers must follow to use your service.
PrivacyGeneral rules about how your store protects the privacy of customers.
Shipping and paymentsAn explanation of how customers can pay and how products are shipped.
Cancellation rightDescribes the right to return products.
Withdrawal formA standardized return request slip for customers.
Imprint, Impressum, or legal noticeInformation about your company, such as the name, address, and contact details.

You can add the following store policies in your Shopify admin:

  • Terms-of-service
  • Privacy policy
  • Shipping policy
  • Legal notice, also known as the Impressum

You need to create your own store policies. Contact a local legal expert for help.

Steps:

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Policies.

  2. Enter your store policies.

  3. Click Save.

When you add your store policies, they're automatically linked in the footer of your checkout pages. You can also link to the policies from your online store menus.

Add custom pages to display legal information

Some legal information, such as your cancellation right or withdrawal form, has no matching store policy. You can add that information to your store as a page instead.

Learn more about the EU right of withdrawal, how to add pages to your online store, and how to link those pages in your store menus.

Depending on your local laws, you might need to include certain links in your store policies. For example, merchants who sell in Germany usually include a link to Google’s Opt Out extension.

Steps:

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Policies.

  2. Find and highlight the text that you want to turn into a link.

  3. Click the Insert link icon in the toolbar.

  4. Enter the destination URL and a description for the link.

  5. Select how the link should open:

    • the same window: The link will open in a user's existing browser tab or window.
    • a new window: The link will open in a new browser tab or window.
  6. Click Insert link.