How to improve your customers’ understanding of your terms and conditions

13 August 2019

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has released guidance on how businesses can help to improve their customers’ understanding of their contractual terms, conditions and privacy policies online (T&Cs).

The guidance can be found at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/818341/improving-consumer-understanding-contractual-terms-privacy-policies.pdf

The guidance relates to contracts between businesses and consumers so will be particularly helpful for those who generally carry out work for individuals, such as removers, however some of the principles can be applied to business contracts, particularly when dealing with smaller businesses who may be less likely to ensure that they have read and understood your T&Cs before agreeing to enter into a contract.

A very small proportion of consumers properly read or understand T&Cs before entering into a contract. Ensuring your customers understand your T&Cs can help to avoid a range of negative outcomes such as complaints or disputes which, in turn, protects business reputation.

One of the intended objectives of T&Cs is to ensure that customers are adequately informed and following the above guidance may help business to achieve this.

To discuss any aspect of your terms and conditions, please call a member of the Commercial or Dispute Resolution team on 01254 828300.