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A terms and conditions agreement, also known as terms of service, is a legal document between a provider of a service and a website or app user. This document clarifies and provides boundaries, warranties, and contract principles that govern the relationship between the user and service provider.
Terms and conditions also act as a user license agreement. If you are researching how to write terms and conditions, this article will cover 9 things to include.
Every terms and conditions agreement begins with an introduction to the business issuing the document. Then, it establishes a context for the contract principles that will shape your user agreement.
Before people can agree to your terms and conditions, they must know exactly who your business is and how these website terms and conditions apply to your site and their experience.
Although you are not technically required by law to have official terms and conditions agreement, it is a highly common and recommended business practice.
Without terms and conditions, you may have a harder time legally enforcing your rights, such as:
Here is an article that explores the elements of terms of service more.
The terms and conditions contract helps you establish legal authority over your business and the platform users engage with.
It does a number of things such as:
For example, a large part of terms and conditions for sites with social features is the ban of any discriminatory, hateful, or abusive language.
In this portion of the document, you will describe the contract principles, such as rules affecting the use of content and user conduct on your site or application.
You must establish that the user must consent to all the terms and conditions in the contract. Accepting the terms and conditions allows them to follow a user agreement whenever they use your platform.
A step-by-step article on how to write a terms and conditions agreement.
The effective date is the start date of the terms and conditions agreement, for example, November 2022. Therefore, if you update your terms and conditions, you will need to change the effective date.
If you write your terms and conditions for the first time, you can simply write, “Effective From [Date].”
You can change “effective from” to “last updated” when you update your agreement.
Annual reviews are advisable for all user agreements. Your business’s needs may change, or you may alter your agreements to reflect changes in your audience’s behavior.
Whatever the case, every agreement needs to have an effective date. This makes it easier to legally enforce if there is ever a lawsuit or liability.
Here is an article that explains effective dates in contract law.
Governing law establishes what legal body will enforce the contract's warranties, regulations, and terms. Here is an example governing body statement:
“ You agree that all matters relating to your interactions on the site/application will be governed by the laws of the United States and the laws in the state of New York.”
Governing law protects your business by ensuring no one can sue it for breaching laws outside your jurisdiction.
Imagine that you have an international client who raises a legal dispute over a violation. Would the dispute be handled based on the laws in their country or yours?
Governing law ensures that your business is always legally operating within the structure of your country and state’s governing laws.
Here is an article about how governing law works in contracts.
Meet some lawyers on our platformA disclaimer of warranties and liability limitations is important to protecting your business. You can state that your company will not be held accountable for any personal injury, data theft, loss, or other damages incurred by using your website.
You can also limit your liability for any inaccurate content or information found on your site and absolve your business of any responsibility for others’ content or actions on your platform.
In website terms and conditions, it is most common to include a disclaimer for:
You can also use your warranties disclaimer section to set a damages cap. This means that if someone files a lawsuit against your business, there is a limit to how much money they can pursue.
Good warranties are fair to both your business and the customer. Therefore, it is important to protect yourself by limiting liability. Still, you must also offer enough security to build trust with your users.
Here is an article with 10 examples of disclaimers you may draw inspiration from.
Terms and conditions also impact terms of service. Together, they form a user agreement that grants a person the privilege to access your website or mobile application.
Rules of conduct set the guidelines for behavior on the website. They allow you to:
Examples of penalties include account suspension or termination.
Here is an article with an example of a terms and conditions agreement with clear rules of conduct.
You can protect your intellectual property through a terms and conditions agreement. Your intellectual property is anything intangible that you own. For example:
Your user terms of service can directly prohibit the unauthorized use, distribution, sale, or sharing of any intellectual property.
Here is an article that provides more information on what counts as intellectual property.
You can include rules for behaviors users cannot do on your website/app. This can include sharing illegal, sexually explicit, stolen, or copyrighted material.
Restrictions are in place to protect the business as well as other users. They prohibit hateful, abusive, or harmful behaviors and protect others’ data and privacy.
You should also note what consequences someone can experience for violating restrictions.
Here is an article you can refer to and see how user restrictions are covered.
The business can reserve its right to delete a user’s account through contract termination agreement.
Breaches of contract can result in immediate termination without warning if someone violates the terms of service in their user agreement.
You can also reinforce the users’ right to terminate service and delete their account with your business anytime.
Ensure you also cover privacy policies and data storage after account termination. For example, suppose a user deletes their account or your company deletes theirs. What happens to their name/username, IP address, email address, password, and other data you collect?
Here is an article to learn more about termination clauses.
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Keidi S. Carrington brings a wealth of legal knowledge and business experience in the financial services area with a particular focus on investment management. She is a former securities examiner at the United States Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) and Associate Counsel at State Street Bank & Trust and has consulted for various investment houses and private investment entities. Her work has included developing a mutual fund that invested in equity securities of listed real estate investment trusts (REITs) and other listed real estate companies; establishing private equity and hedge funds that help clients raise capital by preparing offering materials, negotiating with prospective investors, preparing partnership and LLC operating agreements and advising on and documenting management arrangements; advising on the establishment of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs/Token Offerings) and counseling SEC registered and state investment advisers regarding organizational structure and compliance. Ms. Carrington is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University with a B.A. in International Relations. She earned her Juris Doctorate from New England Law | Boston and her LL.M. in Banking and Financial Law from Boston University School of Law. She is admitted to practice in Massachusetts and New York. Currently, her practice focuses on assisting investors, start-ups, small and mid-size businesses with their legal needs in the areas of corporate and securities law.
www.linkedin/in/michaelbmiller I am an experienced contracts professional having practiced nearly 3 decades in the areas of corporate, mergers and acquisitions, technology, start-up, intellectual property, real estate, employment law as well as informal dispute resolution. I enjoy providing a cost effective, high quality, timely solution with patience and empathy regarding client needs. I graduated from NYU Law School and attended Rutgers College and the London School of Economics as an undergraduate. I have worked at top Wall Street firms, top regional firms and have long term experience in my own practice. I would welcome the opportunity to be of service to you as a trusted fiduciary. In 2022 and 2023, I was the top ranked attorney on the Contract Counsel site based upon number of clients, quality of work and number of 5 Star reviews.
Terry Brennan is an experienced corporate, intellectual property and emerging company transactions attorney who has been a partner at two national Wall Street law firms and a trusted corporate counsel. He focuses on providing practical, cost-efficient and creative legal advice to entrepreneurs, established enterprises and investors for business, corporate finance, intellectual property and technology transactions. As a partner at prominent law firms, Terry's work centered around financing, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, securities transactions, outsourcing and structuring of business entities to protect, license, finance and commercialize technology, manufacturing, digital media, intellectual property, entertainment and financial assets. As the General Counsel of IBAX Healthcare Systems, Terry was responsible for all legal and related business matters including health information systems licensing agreements, merger and acquisitions, product development and regulatory issues, contract administration, and litigation. Terry is a graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center, where he was an Editor of the law review. He is active in a number of economic development, entrepreneurial accelerators, veterans and civic organizations in Florida and New York.
I have had my own law practice since 2014 and I enjoy solving my clients’ problems. That’s why I constantly stay on top of the latest developments in the law and business of startups, entertainment, art, intellectual property, and commercial enterprise. I constantly keep learning because everything I learn helps me make my client’s life better. I assist clients in all aspects of copyright, trademark, contract, trade secret, business, nonprofit, employment, mediation, art, fashion, and entertainment law. Even though I am licensed to practice law in NY, I have worked for clients all over the country and even in Europe, Africa, and Latin America. No matter the client, I always look for ways to protect their assets, artworks, businesses, and brands with strategies to help them grow. I am a fluent bilingual legal professional who can analyze complex legal and business problems and solve them creatively for the benefit of my clients. I am detail-oriented and attentive which makes me excellent at negotiating, drafting, and revising all types of agreements and deals. I advise creatives and companies on intellectual property issues, risk management, and strategic planning. My clients love what I do for them because I employ a practical, client-tailored, and results-oriented approach to their case, no matter how small.
My name is Ryenne Shaw and I help business owners build businesses that operate as assets instead of liabilities, increase in value over time and build wealth. My areas of expertise include corporate formation and business structure, contract law, employment/labor law, business risk and compliance and intellectual property. I also serve as outside general counsel to several businesses across various industries nationally. I spent most of my early legal career assisting C.E.O.s, General Counsel, and in-house legal counsel of both large and smaller corporations in minimizing liability, protecting business assets and maximizing profits. While working with many of these entities, I realized that smaller entities are often underserved. I saw that smaller business owners weren’t receiving the same level of legal support larger corporations relied upon to grow and sustain. I knew this was a major contributor to the ceiling that most small businesses hit before they’ve even scratched the surface of their potential. And I knew at that moment that all of this lack of knowledge and support was creating a huge wealth gap. After over ten years of legal experience, I started my law firm to provide the legal support small to mid-sized business owners and entrepreneurs need to grow and protect their brands, businesses, and assets. I have a passion for helping small to mid-sized businesses and startups grow into wealth-building assets by leveraging the same legal strategies large corporations have used for years to create real wealth. I enjoy connecting with my clients, learning about their visions and identifying ways to protect and maximize the reach, value and impact of their businesses. I am a strong legal writer with extensive litigation experience, including both federal and state (and administratively), which brings another element to every contract I prepare and the overall counsel and value I provide. Some of my recent projects include: - Negotiating & Drafting Commercial Lease Agreements - Drafting Trademark Licensing Agreements - Drafting Ambassador and Influencer Agreements - Drafting Collaboration Agreements - Drafting Service Agreements for service-providers, coaches and consultants - Drafting Master Service Agreements and SOWs - Drafting Terms of Service and Privacy Policies - Preparing policies and procedures for businesses in highly regulated industries - Drafting Employee Handbooks, Standard Operations and Procedures (SOPs) manuals, employment agreements - Creating Employer-employee infrastructure to ensure business compliance with employment and labor laws - Drafting Independent Contractor Agreements and Non-Disclosure/Non-Competition/Non-Solicitation Agreements - Conducting Federal Trademark Searches and filing trademark applications - Preparing Trademark Opinion Letters after conducting appropriate legal research - Drafting Letters of Opinion for Small Business Loans - Drafting and Responding to Cease and Desist Letters I service clients throughout the United States across a broad range of industries.
