The thing that makes it a gift is that there is a law that explicitly makes it so.
Without such explicit law it wouldn't be a gift because it isn't the intention of the sender. These goods are sent as an offer. If you accept the offer then indeed a contract is formed, but if you refuse the offer then nothing happens, i.e. the goods remain the property of the sender.
That's why they enacted that law, in order to stop the practice altogether in one fell swoop as long as the public is aware of it (which clearly is still not really the case).
The Directive is from 2011. That's the one that was transposed in UK law through the Regulation I mention in a previous comment.
You make it clearer than I said it. Thank you for that. And I learned from you that the U.K. implemented the detective by explicitly making the action a gift, this differs from my country in that regard. (I am always glad to learn something new)
Without such explicit law it wouldn't be a gift because it isn't the intention of the sender. These goods are sent as an offer. If you accept the offer then indeed a contract is formed, but if you refuse the offer then nothing happens, i.e. the goods remain the property of the sender.
That's why they enacted that law, in order to stop the practice altogether in one fell swoop as long as the public is aware of it (which clearly is still not really the case).
The Directive is from 2011. That's the one that was transposed in UK law through the Regulation I mention in a previous comment.