Privacy Policy

Terms and Conditions agreements serve as a legally binding contract between you (the business) who manages a mobile application or a website and the customer who uses your app or visits your website.

They are otherwise called Terms of Use or Terms of Service agreements and are shortened as T&Cs (or ToU and ToS, respectively).No two businesses are identical, and as such, every business needs a unique T&C agreement designed to meet its specific needs. While some clauses are conventional and usually seen in basically every Terms and Conditions agreement, you ultimately decide what regulations and guidelines your customers must accept.

Let's take a look at what clauses should go into most Terms and Conditions agreements, as well as how to display and get legal agreement to your T&C.Although employing a Terms and Conditions agreement is fully optional as there are no laws that necessitate it, this agreement is highly recommended by experts and presents lots of benefits for both your company and customers.

What are the Advantages of Having a Terms and Conditions Agreemt?

Some of the advantages to be derived include the following:

• Clarity
• Terms and Conditions agreements provide clarity about what should occur in any given circumstance. They set out the essential business terms you are offering to your customers and help contractual parties to understand their rights, obligations, functions, and accountabilities.
• A Comprehensive system
• Your Terms and Conditions agreement produces a well-organized and comprehensive system by covering commercial terms such as delivery, price, payment, and other areas often overlooked by businesses.
• They also proceed to limit your liability, disclaiming your liability for failure or delay caused by inevitable circumstances, therefore protecting your intellectual property rights.
• Conformity with Laws
• There may be specific regulations that apply to your industry, and you may refer to them in your Terms and Conditions. Having a defined Terms and Conditions agreement helps ensure conformity with applicable laws.
• Confidence and Consistency
• Having a clear set of Terms and Conditions helps you deliver a consistently excellent level of customer service while avoiding any ambiguity.
• By doing this, customer's expectations are well-managed regarding delivery and payment, therefore eliminating disappointments in your provision of services.
• Assurance
• If you have a clear set of Terms and Conditions, it is considerably easier to spot a breach of contract. Written contracts provide assurance and are easier to enforce whenever required.
• Having a comprehensive set of Terms and Conditions also helps minimize the probability of getting a legal dispute. It is more prudent to have a Terms and Conditions agreement prepared than be involved in prolonged and expensive litigation.

What are Some Clauses I Should Add to my Terms and Conditions Agreement?

Terms and Conditions are considerably broad in the abstract sense. However, as businesses differ, they require some specific clauses that are exclusive only to their form of business, depending on:

• The size of the contract
• The complexity of the agreement
• The industry

Generally, almost every Terms and Conditions agreement should include the subsequent clauses:

An Intellectual Property clause

This clause is a provision where you, the business owner or inventor, retains ownership of your patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade dresses, or trade secrets.

Intellectual property security is crucial to promoting innovation.

Without the protection of ideas, individuals and businesses would not gain the full benefits of their creativity and would concentrate less on research and development.

Here's an example of Amazon's Intellectual Property Policy for sellers on its platform:

This excerpt from Amazon sets out what sellers must do, and what they must not do when it comes to IP rights. It also adds some definitions and extra information for clarity, which is helpful to the readers.

A Disclaimer and Limitation of Liability clause

This type of clause is a contractual stipulation or disclaimer for an agreement that defines the circumstances under which you (the disclaiming party) could be held responsible for damages or loss.

It further sets the boundaries of damages that may be claimed in certain situations. This clause limits the amount payable as well as the exposure a company faces if a lawsuit is filed or another claim is made.

If deemed admissible, a Disclaimer and Limitation of Liability clause can "cover" the number of possible losses to which a business is exposed.

For example, a mobile app user experiences loss because they relied on information provided on that app. A Disclaimer and Limitation of Liability clause in the app's Terms and Conditions agreement could restrict the liability of the app owner, and by extension, limit the recoverable amount of the user.

Here's an example of The Coca Cola Company's Disclaimer and Limitation of Liability clause:

Here's an additional example of a Disclaimer and Limitation of Liability clause embedded in the Netflix Terms and Conditions:

A Termination of Agreement clause

This clause provides specifications of the conditions under which individuals in a contract may dissolve their legal relationship and abandon the fulfillment of their duties. This covers the implication of termination, such as payments and other privileges and responsibilities of the contracting parties.

According to common law, you and your client may terminate an agreement for a material or a basic breach of the agreement.

A standard agreement may also be terminated for the following reasons:

• Mutual agreement
• The bankruptcy of a party
• A legal mandate that forbids the agreement
  
• Following its Terms and Conditions (i.e., the expiration of the term of the agreement, or if defined activities are conducted)

Termination of agreement clauses are highly recommended and essential in various contexts because they oversee both you and your client's rights and responsibilities if the business transaction becomes unsustainable. Ordinarily, meetings and negotiations precede termination, and therefore termination is, for the most part, the last resort.

In its Terms and Conditions agreement, Starbucks provides details of its Termination clause which includes a 15-day written notice, and conditions under which termination may occur: