What are website terms and conditions?

Website terms and conditions set out the basis upon which users are permitted to use a website. They also cover related legal matters: statutory disclosures, warranty limitations, disclaimers of liability, and so on. As they are written by the website owner or the owner’s lawyers, website terms and conditions are most commonly focused upon the protection of the owner’s interests. The terms and conditions are usually set out on a special web page.

What clauses are included in these terms and conditions?

The terms and conditions include the following provisions:

  • a licence of the copyright in the website (and restrictions on what may be done with the material on the website);
  • a disclaimer of liability, limiting the scope of legal claims that a user might bring against you;
  • a clause governing user accounts, the use of passwords and restricted areas of the website;
  • an acceptable use clause prohibiting various forms of undesirable conduct;
  • a licence of user content, required because user content is itself protected by copyright and you need a licence in order to publish that content;
  • rules relating to user content, such as prohibitions on defamatory and explicit material;
  • a variation clause allowing you to change the terms and conditions;
  • a clause specifying the applicable law and the jurisdiction in which disputes will be decided;
  • a provision specifying some of the information which needs to be disclosed under UK and EU legislation.

How do I use the terms and conditions?

You can download a Microsoft Word (.DOCX) file by clicking the download button above.

Before publishing the terms and conditions on your website, you will need to edit them using word processing software. After editing, you should convert them to an appropriate format such as HTML.  Your content management system (such as WordPress) may help you with the conversion.

Before and during editing, please read the guidance notes accompanying the terms and conditions. They highlight some of the key issues, including drafting which reflects specific statutory requirements.

Feel free to ask questions about the terms and conditions in the comments section below or using our Q&A system.

Why do I need website terms and conditions?

Obscure in the footer of almost every web page, amongst little used links to website policies, investor relations reports and adverts for adverts, you’ll find a terms and conditions link. Almost no one reads terms and conditions. No one really likes them. Web designers work hard to mini mise their impact upon the user experience. Some publishers really are too cool for legal documents (“Here’s the boring legal stuff! Ha ha!”). Nonetheless, the directives of company legal departments and/or the inchoate fear of legal calamity drive most publishers to include legal documents on their websites.

What are the specific functions of terms and conditions?

There are four main functions:

  • to protect intellectual property rights;
  • to limit or exclude liability in relation to the use of the website;
  • to make information disclosures required by law; and
  • to establish a contractual framework governing the relationship between the publisher and users of the website

Our template terms and conditions cover each of these functions.

See below for more details concerning the specific contents.

What’s the difference between terms and conditions, terms of service and legal notices?

Legal documents are plagued by nomenclatural inconsistency. On this front, website legal notices are as bad if not worse than other legal documents. Documents called “website terms”, “terms and conditions of use”, “conditions of service” might all perform identical functions. So don’t worry too much about what you call your document.

I usually just call them “terms and conditions” – they are after all published on a website, so prefixing “website” isn’t very informative.

If, however, a website includes multiple sets of terms and conditions, qualifiers are appropriate. For example terms and conditions of use vs terms and conditions of sale vs API terms and conditions.

What alternative documents are available?

We publish probably the widest range of website T&Cs documents available in English.  The full range of documents is available both on Website Contracts (as Microsoft Word documents) and Docular (where they can be edited online and downloaded in a variety of formats, including HTML).

A selection of the terms and conditions templates are listed in the tables below, but we have many more variations on the websites.