Q: My daughter, who lives in Australia, was planning to get married in Malta in about 18 months’ time. She ordered her wedding dress from a local Maltese shop and paid a €500 deposit upon confirming the order.

A few days after placing the order, she went back to Australia and the wedding was called off. Obviously, every confirmed booking needed to be cancelled. When contacting the Maltese boutique to cancel the order of the wedding dress, the shop owner refused to cancel the purchase even though the ordered wedding dress had not yet been delivered to the shop.

In fact, when placing the order, my daughter had been informed that delivery takes about three months. We are aware that we may not have rights to claim a deposit refund, but does the shop owner have the right to demand full payment?

My daughter informed the seller that she needed to cancel the order within a month from the date of order, and the wedding dress has not yet been delivered to the shop.

Isn’t it unfair that my daughter is obliged to purchase a wedding dress she no longer needs?

A: Legally, once an order is confirmed and a deposit paid, the sale is considered finalised. At this point, the obligation of the seller is to provide the consumer with the product or service ordered, at the price and date agreed on. Our responsibility as consumers is to pay for the goods once these are delivered.

If, for any reason, we no longer need the goods ordered, we not only risk losing the deposit paid but, legally, we may also be obliged to continue with the purchase.

The only way out of this is if in the contract of sale there is a specific clause permitting the cancellation of an order in specific circumstances, or until a specific period of time.

If there is no such clause in your daughter’s contract of sale, legally she is not backed up if she decides not to take the wedding dress and not pay the rest of the money she owes the seller.

Bearing all this in mind, my advice is that your daughter speaks to the seller to try and find an alternative amicable solution. One possible solution is to ask the seller to try and sell the dress on her behalf and get reimbursed fully, or at least partly, once it is sold.

However, I would like to stress that amicable solutions are entirely voluntary and the seller is in no way obliged to accept to sell the dress on your daughter’s behalf.