Internet terms and conditions and web contracts

If you are an e-commerce business, you will need a set of terms and conditions (ie a contract) to cover your relationship with customers - just as if you were selling through any other medium.

The kind of scenario where terms and conditions can help include: minimising the risk of being sued abroad, reducing your liability if something goes wrong, avoiding being forced to supply goods not in stock or at an incorrect price (eg the Argus £2.99 televisions).

If web terms and conditions are not sufficiently "incorporated" into web contracts with customers, they will be worthless. Online traders tend present their terms and conditions in many different ways. At one end of the scale is clickwrap ie forcing customers to scroll down and click acceptance. At the other end is perhaps having a link at the bottom of a page without any specific reference to it. Obviously, what you should do legally will depend on the circumstances but as a general rule, the more trouble you take to bring the terms and conditions to the attention of customers, the better.

You should in any case have a separate set of website terms and conditions ie which apply specifically to anyone using your website (ie whether or not they actually buy something from you). Amongst other things, these should assert your intellectual property rights and include disclaimers minimising your legal responsibility arising from content on the website including links to other websites.

We can advise on all aspects of internet terms and conditions and web contracts generally. For a free initial chat and more information about online contract legal issues, call Adam Taylor of Adlex Solicitors on +44 (0) 207 317 8404 or email.