From October 15, Tmall Global’s return rules for diaper-rash and allergy claims limit what a buyer can open before asking for a refund. For diapers that’s one pack in a multi-pack order; skincare buyers get one opened item. The rest comes back sealed, so most of a disputed multi-pack claim returns to the shelf as stock you can sell.
Both rules are guarantees a Tmall Global store attaches to its listings: the diaper-rash guarantee (红屁屁包退) and the allergy guarantee (过敏包退). A buyer who reports a rash or a reaction within 60 days of delivery, with photos or a hospital note, gets a full refund. That part hasn’t moved.
What’s new is what happens when the store and the buyer disagree and Tmall Global steps in to rule on it. The final text went up on October 8, after a week of consultation. We read it on October 12.
Tmall Global’s updated diaper-rash and allergy return guarantees were published on October 8, 2026 and take effect on October 15, 2026. Source: Tmall Global (天猫国际), October 2026. https://rule.tmall.hk/?type=detail&ruleId=20010962&cId=636#/rule/detail?ruleId=20010962&cId=636
What the new Tmall Global return rules change
Under the diaper-rash rule, a buyer can open one pack from a multi-pack order line and use up to half of it. The allergy rule allows one opened item from several identical ones, used up to 20%. Sets count item by item, and non-consumables such as makeup brushes or maternity wear have to come back whole. Opened goods go back too, at the store’s freight cost.
In a disputed diaper-rash claim, a multi-pack order line may have at most one opened pack, used up to 50%; the platform’s example is four packs of 30, with up to 15 diapers used from one pack. Source: Tmall Global (天猫国际), October 2026. https://rule.tmall.hk/?type=detail&ruleId=20010962&cId=636#/rule/detail?ruleId=20010962&cId=636
Two cases skip the return entirely. An order line paid at 10 RMB or less is refunded and the buyer keeps it. So is a baby food item (infant nutrition products, purees, snacks, and seasonings) eaten up to 20%.
Until now the diaper-rash rule set no limit on use at all. The allergy rule asked for 80% of the product back but said nothing about how many items a buyer could open.
Goods returned under the allergy guarantee must keep at least 80% of the product’s quantity or volume. Source: Tmall Global (天猫国际), October 2026. https://rule.tmall.hk/?type=detail&ruleId=5509&cId=634#/rule/detail?ruleId=5509&cId=634
What a claim costs from October 15
Take a mother-and-baby store selling 1 million RMB of diapers a month in four-pack order lines at 400 RMB. That’s 2,500 order lines. Say 20 of them end in a rash claim the store can’t settle with the buyer. Those are our assumptions; Tmall Global publishes no claim rates.
Each claim refunds 400 RMB. Under the old text all four packs could come back opened, and an opened pack of diapers is worth nothing as stock. From October 15, at least three of the four come back sealed. Across 20 claims that’s 8,000 RMB refunded and 6,000 RMB of stock back on sale, counted at shelf price. The return parcels cost about 300 RMB to process at our Tmall Global calculator’s 15 RMB a parcel (TheChinaPath calculator data, October 2026).
| Disputed order line | Paid (RMB) | What comes back | Sealed stock recovered (RMB) | Return handling (RMB) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Diapers, four packs at 100 | 400 | three sealed packs, one opened | 300 | 15 |
| Toner, two bottles at 200 | 400 | one sealed bottle, one opened | 200 | 15 |
| Baby puree, one jar at 35 | 35 | nothing, refund only | 0 | 0 |
| Trial-size cream at 9.9 | 9.9 | nothing, refund only | 0 | 0 |
The last two rows cost the goods and save the parcel. On a 9.9 RMB item, that’s cheaper than a return.
The rest of the guarantee stays as it was, including the penalty.
A store that fails to answer a diaper-rash claim within 48 hours, or refuses it, pays the buyer 100 RMB per order line on top of the refund, which includes the buyer’s shipping and the import tax paid. Source: Tmall Global (天猫国际), October 2026. https://rule.tmall.hk/?type=detail&ruleId=5510&cId=634#/rule/detail?ruleId=5510&cId=634
The allergy guarantee carries the same 100 RMB.
Which budget line moves
Refunds and returns. Stores carrying either guarantee can book a disputed diaper or skincare claim as a partial loss from now on, with most of a multi-pack order line returning as sellable stock. Book low-price lines and baby food claims as straight write-offs.
The rules also land on the day Tmall’s Double 11 opened last year.
Tmall’s Double 11 in 2025 ran from October 15 to November 14. Source: The Paper (澎湃新闻), November 2025. https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_31971814
So the new text covers this year’s festival. And with a 60-day window, a buyer who receives a Double 11 order in mid-November can still claim in mid-January.
What to do, and by when
By October 15, list which of your Tmall Global listings carry either badge, and give customer service the two caps in plain words: one opened pack, half used; one opened item, a fifth used. The caps bind when Tmall Global rules on a dispute, so an agent who can quote them early has a better chance of closing the claim in the chat.
Staff the 48-hour response through the festival and the weeks after it. At 100 RMB per missed order line, a weekend backlog in November gets expensive quickly.
Keep the returns reserve for Double 11 open until mid-January, when the last claims on November deliveries expire.
Put your own return rate and the 15 RMB handling cost into the Tmall Global cost calculator before you lock the Double 11 budget.
Updated October 12, 2026
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