What are Website Terms and Conditions?
Website Terms and Conditions outline the rules and regulations of a website. This important document is both a social and legal contract with the website’s users. By establishing your website’s Terms and Conditions, you inform users as to how they must behave on your website and confirm that they agree to abide by your rules and guidelines when using your website.
While a Website Terms and Conditions page outlines the behaviour expected of the user, it also informs the user of what to expect from the website.
Creating a custom Terms and Conditions page allows you to:
- Prevent abuse: With a Terms and Conditions page, you can outline the behaviours that you prohibit on your website, such as harassing and spamming other users or posting defamatory content.
- Establish ownership of site content: A Terms and Conditions page can inform your users that you own the content on your site.
- Limit liability: A well-written Terms and Conditions page can help prevent harmful lawsuits by establishing the conditions of the website. It can also help prevent your website from being held accountable for any errors or misinformation on your site.
Website Terms and Conditions are also known as:
- Website terms of use
- Website terms of service
- Terms of use for a website
How do I create Terms and Conditions for my website?
You can create Website Terms and Conditions for your:
- Blog
- E-Commerce or online shop
- Wix or Squarespace site
- News or media site
- Portfolio
- Other
As the website’s owner, start by providing the business’ full name, the website’s domain, and the juristiction in which the website is based.
Provide a way for users to contact you. Include a phone number, email, and address. Some websites also have a feedback form. Make sure to note if users can also contact you through a feedback form on your website.
Evaluate your site content
Your website has specific functions and attributes that are important to note when crafting your Terms and Conditions. To ensure your Terms and Conditions include the necessary information, consider:
- If there is a minimum age requirement for users on your site.
- If users can create an account on your site.
- If users can buy goods and services on your website. If so, indicate:
- What kinds of goods or services your site offers.
- If you sell goods or services through a subscription service or a one-time purchase (or both). If your website does offer a subscription service, indicate if it renews automatically. You can also choose to include a cancellation policy.
- What payment methods your site accepts (if applicable).
- If users can post content or post publicly on your site, such as:
- Items for sale
- Photos
- Videos
- Public comments
Note any third-party contributions
Be sure to specify if your website sells products or offers services from third-party companies. For example, Amazon allows third-party companies to sell products on its marketplace. Additionally, be sure to note if the site contains advertisements or links to third-party sites.
Specify unacceptable uses of your site
There are many behaviours that you might want to prohibit users from doing on your site. These behaviours may include:
- Harassing or abusing of other users
- Violating of the rights of other users
- Committing copyright infringement against the site owners or any third-party on the site
- Hacking user accounts
- Committing fraudulent acts
- Posting material that may be deemed inappropriate or offensive
You can also specify any other user behaviour you wish to prohibit that might be specific to your site.
Include guarantees
Depending on the nature of your website, you might choose to include a guarantee in your Terms and Conditions. A guarantee is a promise on behalf of an entity that it will fulfil certain conditions. The need to include a guarantee in your Terms and Conditions will depend on the nature of your website and organisation.
For example, suppose you are a fitness instructor who sells an e-book with a 30 day personal training guide. In this case, you might include a guarantee that if you ever update that particular e-book, everyone who previously purchased a copy will receive an updated edition.
Explain how you will resolve disputes
You can choose to include details on how you will resolve any disputes between you and website users. You can decide to resolve conflicts using:
- Mediation
- Arbitration
- Mediation then arbitration
If you decide to include these details, you can also include who will be responsible for the costs of mediation or arbitration. You can decide to:
- Split the cost equally
- Hold the losing party responsible
- Not include any details about costs
Mediation is a method of resolving disputes where a neutral third-party mediator will attempt to facilitate an agreement between you and the website user. The mediator's decision does not bind the parties.
On the other hand, arbitration involves a neutral third party who will resolve the parties' dispute. The arbitrator's decision is binding.
If you use our template and select "mediation", "arbitration", or "mediation, then arbitration" your Terms and Conditions will still allow disputes to be brought to small claims courts. In addition, the users of your site can make claims for intellectual property infringement and injunctive relief.
Include additional clauses
If there is anything specific to your website that you think is crucial to include, you can include additional clauses. To reduce confusion, you should:
- Write your clauses clearly and in plain language
- Limit them to one paragraph in length
- Use a new clause for each unique point
- Use any predefined terms, such as Site, in your clauses
Choose an effective date
Decide on a date on which the Website Terms and Conditions will come into effect.
Does the law require terms and Conditions?
No. The law does not require websites to have a Terms and Conditions page. However, legally, including a Terms and Conditions page is a smart choice.
If you sell goods and services on your website, consumer protection law requires that you disclose certain information to consumers before they make a purchase. Your Terms and Conditions page is a good option for where to include some of that information.
A properly written set of Terms and Conditions can also offer protection by limiting your company’s liability should a user or customer ever take you to court.
Your Terms and Conditions establish the contractual terms between you and your user, and a court will reference this document. With that in mind, it’s important to remember when you're creating your Terms and Conditions that the document might be presented in court one day. Be sure that you are properly protecting your organisation by including any necessary details in your document.
Can you use another company's Terms and Conditions?
No. It might be tempting to use the Terms and Conditions from a similar website, but this isn’t a good idea. Because every website has its own functions, you should create your own custom Website Terms and Conditions instead of repurposing an existing set of conditions from another website. If your company is ever brought to court by a website user, you may not be sufficiently protected by another site’s Terms and Conditions.
Additionally, repurposing another company’s Terms and Conditions may qualify as copyright infringement. As a result, taking another site’s Terms and Conditions isn’t only a poor idea but may also be illegal.
Do I need a lawyer to write Terms and Conditions?
No. Creating Terms and Conditions for your website isn’t something you need to do through a lawyer. That being said, choosing to consult a lawyer when you’re creating Terms and Conditions for your website is a valid option to make sure your document meets your organisation's specific needs.
If you’re looking for a way to create Website Terms and Conditions simply and affordably, using LawDepot’s Terms and Conditions generator is a great option. We take the guesswork out of the process by asking you a series of questions about your site and organisation. Your answers generate a document that you can copy and paste onto your website.
Are Terms and Conditions legally binding?
Yes, as long as the Terms and Conditions page meets some requirements:
- Terms and Conditions must be apparent to the user: Terms and Conditions that are buried on a website may be difficult to enforce in court. Make sure you place your Terms and Conditions somewhere the user can find them.
- The user must accept the Terms and Conditions: Once the user agrees with the Terms and Conditions, it creates a binding contract between the user and the organisation.
- Terms and Conditions must follow the appropriate laws: Terms and Conditions need to follow the appropriate laws governing website use and user data to be upheld in court.
Is it illegal to change Terms and Conditions?
No. However, if you decide to update the Terms and Conditions your current users previously agreed to, you should notify your users about the changes you plan on making.
For example, if your company decides to utilize new technology, it’s a good idea to update your Terms and Conditions to explain how this change impacts the user. You’ll want to notify your users of this new change before you start utilizing this new technology. Some reasons you may need to change your Terms and Conditions include:
- Implementing new software
- Beginning to sell goods and services
- Complying with the legal requirements of new laws
- Creating an easier-to-read or more descriptive set of conditions
- Informing users of new website functionalities
Failing to update your Terms and Conditions when necessary can result in negative consequences for your organisation. If your changes impact a user’s rights, you might be opening up your organization to otherwise avoidable lawsuits. If a user isn’t aware of these changes, they can argue that they never agreed to them.
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