Make sure you mind your Ts and Cs

When a university Professor was last month fined £155 for cutting his rail journey short he was subsequently let off the fine as a ‘goodwill gesture’. But would the company’s terms and conditions have stood up if this had reached the courts?

In these days of internet shopping we expect to make our purchase after a few clicks and it’s probably a rare person who trawls through all the terms & conditions in search of a clause that could put them off the purchase. But what’s lurking within these pages that buyers can miss and that sellers can later use? As far as Professor Evans is concerned, he bought a rail ticket online from East Coast not realising that the terms and conditions stopped him from making any changes to his journey. An unrepentant East Coast said: "The terms and conditions of the Advanced Purchase First Class ticket clearly state that breaking a journey en route, or starting from an intermediate station, is not permitted.”

Another group of online shoppers missed out on a £5 gift voucher by not reading the terms and conditions when Gamestation, the video games shop, changed the terms and conditions on its website on 1 April to say that it had an option to claim the soul of each customer who bought from them, by serving a notice in six foot high letters of fire. Nearly 90 per cent of customers agreed to the terms and conditions without reading them. Those who read them and rejected the "Immortal Soul Clause" were given the voucher.

Joke or not, aggrieved consumers have The Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 to turn to. This aims to protect consumers against unfair standard terms in contracts they make with traders. According to the Office of Fair Trading, a term is unfair if ‘Contrary to the requirement of good faith it causes a significant imbalance in the parties' rights and obligations under the contract, to the detriment of consumers’.  In other words, any terms included by a seller or supplier which are held to be unfair are not binding on the consumer. ‘Good faith’ means that traders must deal fairly and openly with customers. The terms must also be expressed in plain and intelligible language. Any term that could be misinterpreted can be open to challenge. If there is doubt as to what a term means, the meaning most favourable to the consumer will apply.

We’ll never know whether a court would rule that East Coast’s terms & conditions contravene the Unfair Terms Regulations. It probably would not have done so but it is important for anyone putting together terms and conditions to ensure that they will be seen to be fair, clear and in no way misleading. That way there will be no come back from customers.

For further information, contact Alison Barr on 01223 417200.

The information given in this article is of a general nature only and should not be considered as advice applicable to any particular situation for which specific request should be made to us.

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