Terms of sale & use.

These terms govern your use of kovalabs.co.uk and every order placed on it. By using the site or placing an order you agree to these terms. Please read them before you order: they set out what we supply, what happens if something goes wrong, and what we need from you to put it right.

Kovalabs is a trading name of Floww Group Limited, registered in England & Wales, company number 15986643, registered office 66 Paul Street, London, EC2A 4NE. You can contact us at team@kovalabs.co.uk.

1. Research-only sale

All products are sold strictly for laboratory research purposes. They are not medicines, foods, supplements or cosmetics, and they are not for human or animal use. See our full research disclaimer for the conditions you accept on purchase.

We supply only for bona fide laboratory research. We reserve the right to refuse or cancel any order, in whole or in part, where the order pattern, quantity, correspondence or other circumstances indicate the products are not intended for legitimate research use. If we cancel an order for this reason before dispatch, we refund your payment in full.

2. Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years old and resident in the UK to place an order. We deliver within the UK and the Crown Dependencies only.

3. Ordering and how the contract is formed

You place an order by adding products to your basket, entering your contact and delivery details, choosing a delivery option, and confirming payment on the Review step. You can check and change your basket, details, and delivery choice at any point before you press Pay. Use the back links or edit your basket to correct any mistakes. Please check the products, strengths and quantities carefully: once research compounds have been dispatched they cannot be returned or exchanged because you have changed your mind (see section 6).

When you press Pay you are making an offer to buy the products and you authorise payment, which is taken at that point. Our contract with you is formed when we send you our order confirmation email. If we cannot accept your order, for example because an item is out of stock, a price has been listed in error, or you do not meet our eligibility requirements, we will tell you and refund your payment in full without delay.

The contract is concluded in English only. We keep a record of your order, and you can view it at any time through the link in your confirmation email. We recommend you save or print these terms and your confirmation email for your records.

4. Pricing & payment

Prices are shown in GBP and are the total price payable for the products. We are not currently registered for VAT, so no VAT is added at checkout. Delivery is charged separately; the cost is shown at checkout and on our Shipping & Payment page. Payment is taken when you place your order. Prices may change at any time, but the price shown when you place your order is the price you pay.

5. Delivery, risk and checking your order

Delivery services, times and costs are set out on our Shipping & Payment page. We dispatch by Royal Mail Tracked and email you a tracking link as soon as the parcel is scanned. Delivery dates are estimates. We are not responsible for delays caused by Royal Mail, weather or other events outside our reasonable control, although we will always chase a delayed parcel for you.

Risk in the products passes to you when the parcel is handed to you or to someone at your address, or is left in a safe place or with a neighbour that you nominated, including through a delivery instruction you gave Royal Mail. Ownership passes to you when we receive payment in full.

Please check your order as soon as it arrives. If anything is damaged, faulty, incorrect or missing, keep the products and all of the packaging and follow the reporting process in section 7 within 7 days of delivery.

If a parcel comes back to us because the address you gave was incomplete or incorrect, because delivery was refused, or because it was not collected from Royal Mail, we will contact you once it is back with us. We can then send it again once you have paid the postage for the second attempt, or cancel the order and refund the product price. The original delivery charge is not refunded in that case.

6. Cancellation, returns and exchanges

Before dispatch. You can cancel any order free of charge at any time before it is dispatched. Email us with your order number. If the parcel has not yet been handed to Royal Mail, we cancel the order and refund your payment in full. Orders placed before our 2pm cut-off are dispatched the same working day, so contact us straight away.

Research compounds and bacteriostatic water. These are temperature- and handling-sensitive sterile products. Once they leave our controlled storage we cannot verify how they have been stored or handled, and they cannot be resold. For that reason they are exempt from the 14-day cancellation right as goods liable to deteriorate (regulation 28(1)(c) of the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013), and any vial that has been unsealed is additionally excluded for health protection and hygiene reasons (regulation 28(3)(a)). We do not accept change-of-mind returns or exchanges of these products once an order has been dispatched. This does not limit your rights if a product is faulty, damaged or not what you ordered: see section 7.

Accessories and merchandise. For any non-sterile item, such as clothing or laboratory accessories, you may cancel within 14 days of the day you receive it and return the item unused and in its original packaging for a refund. You pay the return postage and we refund within 14 days of receiving the item back. The model cancellation form is on our returns and replacements page.

7. If something is wrong with your order

We are under a legal duty to supply products that conform to our contract with you. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, the products we send you must match their description, be of satisfactory quality, and be fit for purpose. If a product arrives damaged, is faulty, is not what you ordered, or is missing from the parcel, we will put it right. Our standard remedy is a replacement of the affected item, sent at our cost.

To make a claim, contact us within 7 days of delivery at team@kovalabs.co.uk with your order number, a description of the problem, and clear photographs showing it: the outer packaging, the affected vial or item with its label and batch number visible, and, where an item is missing or incorrect, everything you received laid out next to the packing slip. Keep the products and all of the packaging until we tell you the claim is closed, as we may need them for a Royal Mail claim or ask you to return them to us for inspection at our cost. We reply within one working day and dispatch an accepted replacement by the next dispatch cut-off.

A claim must be supported by evidence. We cannot act on a bare statement that an order arrived damaged, is faulty or was short, and we check every claim against our packing and dispatch records and against Royal Mail's tracking data. If you cannot photograph the problem, tell us why and we will arrange for the item to be returned to us for inspection instead.

The 7-day reporting window protects the evidence; it does not limit your legal rights. A fault reported later is still assessed under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, but the longer the gap, the harder it is to show that the problem existed when the product was delivered, and transit damage reported late usually cannot be claimed from Royal Mail. Nothing in these terms removes your statutory rights, including your short-term right to reject faulty goods within 30 days of delivery and your rights to a repair or replacement, or a price reduction, within six months.

8. Lost or delayed parcels, and parcels marked as delivered

If your tracking has not moved for 3 working days, or the parcel has not arrived within 3 working days of the date Royal Mail gave, contact us with your order number and we will open an investigation with Royal Mail. Royal Mail does not treat a tracked parcel as lost until a set number of working days have passed after its due date. Once it confirms the loss, or that window passes, we send a replacement or, if you prefer, refund the order. If the original parcel later turns up, tell us: keep only one, and return the duplicate to us at our cost.

If Royal Mail's tracking shows the parcel as delivered but you have not received it, check with everyone at the address, your neighbours and any safe place first, then contact us within 3 working days of the delivery scan. We ask Royal Mail for its delivery evidence (GPS location, photograph and any signature). Where that evidence shows the parcel was handed to someone at your address, or left where you asked Royal Mail to leave it, risk had passed to you and we are not obliged to replace it. We may still do so at our discretion, and we will normally ask for a police crime reference number before we consider it.

9. Claims we decline and misuse of this process

We take every genuine problem seriously and we keep a record of every claim. We will decline a claim, and may refuse future orders, where it is unsupported by evidence, where photographs appear altered, reused or inconsistent with our dispatch records, where a change-of-mind return is presented as a fault, or where the pattern of claims on an account or address indicates that this process is being abused. If a payment dispute or chargeback is raised for an order that our records and Royal Mail's evidence show was delivered as instructed, we will contest it with that evidence and may recover the amount and our reasonable costs.

10. Complaints

If something has gone wrong, email team@kovalabs.co.uk with your order number, or write to Floww Group Limited, 66 Paul Street, London, EC2A 4NE. We aim to acknowledge complaints within one working day and to resolve them within 14 days.

If we cannot resolve your complaint, our final response will tell you about any alternative dispute resolution (ADR) arrangement that is available. We are not legally required to use ADR for sales of goods and we are not currently a member of an ADR scheme. Whatever the outcome, you remain free to bring a claim in court, and nothing in these terms affects that right.

11. Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, our liability is limited to the value of the relevant order, and we are not liable for indirect or consequential losses or for outcomes arising from the storage, handling or use of products after delivery. Nothing in these terms limits liability for fraud, death, or personal injury caused by negligence, or affects your statutory rights as a consumer.

12. Using this website

All content on this website, including text, product descriptions, certificates, images and code, is owned by or licensed to us and is protected by copyright. The Kovalabs name and logo are our trade marks. You may view, download or print content for your own personal use; any other reproduction, scraping or distribution requires our written consent. You may not use this website unlawfully or attempt to interfere with its operation, and we may suspend or close accounts that breach these terms.

13. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time by publishing the new version on this page with an updated date. The version in force when you place an order is the one that applies to that order.

14. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of England & Wales. You can bring proceedings in the English courts. If you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you can also bring proceedings in your local courts.