Check the small print

Posted by / February 23rd, 2015 / No responses

Once upon a time, six thirsty bankers agreed to ‘render their firstborn child or favourite pet for all eternity’ in return for free Wifi. Is this a fairy tale to scare our kids at bedtime or is it a true story?

Here are the facts. In a coffee shop in London’s Canary Wharf, customers were offered free Wifi, provided they tick a box accepting the Terms and Conditions before logging on. This doesn’t sound particularly unusual.

However, in this instance a condition was embedded in the Terms and Conditions which obliged the signer to hand over their firstborn or favourite pet to the Wifi provider. Whoops. A classic King Herod clause put there to test whether the contract has been read.

Six customers accepted the Terms and Conditions – after which, the clause was removed from the experiment for fear of acquiring a very large family and a small petting zoo. Had the clause been left in the contract, I suspect the number of signatories would have been much higher than six.

So this begs the question – how often do you read through the legalese before placing your order online? Or do you simply tick the box and accept the terms, eager to take delivery of your lovely new things? Guilty as charged, if I’m honest and I should know better.

Of course, as a consumer, we have various protections under English law which prohibits a Wifi provider from having claims over our children or pets. On a more practical level, there are lots of rules and regulations governing how business deals with its consumers to ensure a degree of reasonableness. That said, we should still check the terms we are signing up to beforehand – even if it just to check how we can cancel a contract if we want out.

A business-to-business relationship does not enjoy as much regulatory protection as a consumer. Most terms and conditions are enforceable against a business user, provided they are presented before the contract commences. Therefore, this amusing experiment also provides a stark reminder to businesses to review the legal terms and conditions before signing a contract or ticking boxes online to accept them.

Does your organisation have a robust process of checking contracts before signature? Do your sales and contracts teams understand what they are signing? Do you know what lies within your own standard terms?

If you want to explore better ways of working and empower your team to make better decisions when it comes to contracting, then come and talk to us at Serenwood. We speak your language.

We’re on a mission to guide businesses to reach commercial excellence. It doesn’t have to be as difficult as you might think. Greater awareness reduces risk & dispute. It’s that simple.

hello@serenwood.co.uk

P.S. On a personal note, I would gladly render one of my children for at least a few days in return for free Wifi and a coffee. But that’s my decision, right….

P.P.S Check out this previous blog post on checking t’s and c’s