The Cooling-Off Rule is an FTC rule, codified at 16 CFR Part 429, that lets a buyer cancel certain sales made somewhere other than the seller's permanent place of business — a home, a hotel conference room, a fairground, a workplace — until midnight of the third business day after the transaction.
Where you'll see it
It should arrive as a physical form handed to you at the time of sale, captioned "Notice of Right to Cancel" or "Notice of Cancellation," in duplicate. If it isn't in your paperwork, that absence is itself meaningful — see below.
The rule behind it
You, the buyer, may cancel this transaction at any time prior to midnight of the third business day after the date of this transaction. See the attached notice of cancellation form for an explanation of this right.
In connection with any door-to-door sale, it constitutes an unfair and deceptive act or practice for any seller to: … (b) Fail to furnish each buyer, at the time the buyer signs the door-to-door sales contract or otherwise agrees to buy consumer goods or services from the seller, a completed form in duplicate, captioned either "NOTICE OF RIGHT TO CANCEL" or "NOTICE OF CANCELLATION,"
Two thresholds, not one: $25 or more if the sale is made at the buyer's residence, $130 or more at locations other than the buyer's residence. Both are written into the rule's definition.
Consumer info, not financial advice.