How many times have you really carefully read up the terms and conditions on any website before clicking on “I Agree”? Probably never! The verbose paragraphs of legal jargon is something very few of us end up reading. But having said that, websites cannot afford to do away with writing customer terms and conditions. It legally protects them from conflicts and misunderstandings from the customer and against any liabilities. If you are looking forward to writing customer terms and conditions for your website, then the following tips may be of help to you:
1) Language
Terms and conditions are essentially legal content but you can make efforts to ensure that they are written in a friendly tone. You don’t want to scare away a customer with legal jargon. Use simple language and try to be as clear as possible in whatever you’re trying to state.
2) Organised content:
It is necessary that you organise your content with subheadings so that a customer trying to go through the terms and conditions can skim through the content without getting fatigued.
3) Reader-friendly content:
You need to remember that you are writing terms and conditions for the internet and not on paper. Internet readers don’t spend a lot of time reading. They just go through basic keywords which give them a fair understanding of your T&C.
4) Intellectual Property Rights:
Copyright infringement of website information is an issue that you can face. In order to avoid that it is necessary to include information on legal action being taken by the owner in case of infringement. You can mention a section on copyright infringement.
5) Complaint procedure and customer service:
Do mention the course of action that customers can take in case they want to make a complaint. It is always good to have an internal procedure setup for redressal of customer issues.
Writing terms and conditions for your website can end being a tedious task unless you are a legal expert. So it’s best that you hire a legal expert who can help you write terms and conditions and other legal documents for your website. At Prowse Barrette LLP, our legal experts are adept in guiding you to write the terms and conditions for your website.