The same exists in Germany for many years, as there is a law allowing customers to return goods bought online within two weeks. Shoppers abused this regulation a lot (I think H&M had problems with this), so that the rules got changed lately: you need to state a reason and certain items are excluded. Here is a somehow recent article in german about said law http://www.br.de/themen/ratgeber/inhalt/verbrauchertipps/kun...
Edit: Amazon even started to block accounts when they returned too frequently (link in german) http://www.golem.de/news/verbraucherschutz-amazon-sperrt-kun...
The Atlantic article doesn't mention Germany, but is has been a issue for years over there.