This template is free to download and use for your website or mobile app.
A Terms and Conditions agreement is the agreement that includes the terms, the rules and the guidelines of acceptable behavior and other useful sections to which users must agree in order to use or access your website and mobile app.
Terms and Conditions agreements act as a legal contract between you (the company) who has the website or mobile app and the user who access your website and mobile app.
Having a Terms and Conditions agreement is completely optional. No laws require you to have one. Not even the super-strict and wide-reaching General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
It's up to you to set the rules and guidelines that the user must agree to. You can think of your Terms and Conditions agreement as the legal agreement where you maintain your rights to exclude users from your app in the event that they abuse your app, where you maintain your legal rights against potential app abusers, and so on.
Terms and Conditions are also known as Terms of Service or Terms of Use.
You can use this agreement anywhere, regardless of what platform your business operates on:
Websites
WordPress blogs or blogs on any kind of platform: Joomla!, Drupal etc.
Desktop apps usually have an EULA (End-User License Agreement) instead of a Terms and Conditions agreement, but your business can use both. Mobile apps are increasingly using Terms and Conditions along with an EULA if the mobile app has an online service component, i.e. it connects with a server.
The Intellectual Property disclosure will inform users that the contents, logo and other visual media you created is your property and is protected by copyright laws.
A Termination clause will inform that users' accounts on your website and mobile app or users' access to your website and mobile (if users can't have an account with you) can be terminated in case of abuses or at your sole discretion.
A Governing Law will inform users which laws govern the agreement. This should the country in which your company is headquartered or the country from which you operate your website and mobile app.
A Links To Other Web Sites clause will inform users that you are not responsible for any third party websites that you link to. This kind of clause will generally inform users that they are responsible for reading and agreeing (or disagreeing) with the Terms and Conditions or Privacy Policies of these third parties.
If your website or mobile app allows users to create content and make that content public to other users, a Content section will inform users that they own the rights to the content they have created. The "Content" clause usually mentions that users must give you (the website or mobile app developer) a license so that you can share this content on your website/mobile app and to make it available to other users.
Because the content created by users is public to other users, a DMCA notice clause (or Copyright Infringement ) section is helpful to inform users and copyright authors that, if any content is found to be a copyright infringement, you will respond to any DMCA takedown notices received and you will take down the content.
A Limit What Users Can Do clause can inform users that by agreeing to use your service, they're also agreeing to not do certain things. This can be part of a very long and thorough list in your Terms and Conditions agreements so as to encompass the most amount of negative uses.
You can also use your T&C to inform users about trademarks, design rights and other intellectual property rights:
If you operate a SaaS app, a "Termination clause" will be very important. The relationship with your customers can end for any number of reasons, from a customer changing careers to a new and better SaaS option becoming available or just general dissatisfaction with a service.
But as the owner of the app, you should have a way to actively end a relationship with a customer under certain circumstances.
SurveyMonkey has included sections in their Terms of Use that outline what happens in the event of termination of service by either party. Note how the issue of a refund is addressed, as well as what happens with content that belongs to a user upon termination of the user's account:
Inform users about your returns and refunds policies. You can also do this through a separate agreement, called a Return and Refund Policy, that you can reference in the Terms & Conditions agreement.
Let's look at an example: the Limitation of Liability of Your Products clause.
No matter what kind of goods you sell, best practices direct you to present any warranties you are disclaiming and liabilities you are limiting in a way that your customers will notice.
You've probably noticed that these clauses in contracts are always in blocks of all-caps text and really do stand out from the rest of the document.
Apple iTunes, which probably isn't dealing with high-liability goods, includes the following boilerplate language in its Terms agreement to deal with limiting liability and disclaiming warranties.
This exact language is used across multiple industries, businesses, and apps in order to legally disclaim warranties and limit liability.
Include the words "AS IS" for items and "AS AVAILABLE" if you provide any sort of service that may not be available 100% of the time.
Here's a list of questions that can help you determine what to add in your own Terms and Conditions:
Can users create an account on your website or app?
Can users create or publish content on your website or app?
Is the content published by users available publicly?
Can users send you copyright infringement notices?
If your website or app an ecommerce store?
Before you publish the agreement online, make sure your Terms and Conditions includes important disclosures, such as:
Termination of using or accessing your website or sections of your website to prevent abuses
"Governing Law" disclosure to inform which country laws are governing the agreement
Contact details to inform users how they contact you with questions regarding your legal agreements and its provisions
Is a Terms and Conditions required?
A Terms and Conditions is not required and it's not mandatory by law. Unlike Privacy Policies, which are required by laws such as the GDPR, CalOPPA and many others, there's no law or regulation on Terms and Conditions.
However, having a Terms and Conditions gives you the right to terminate the access of abusive users or to terminate the access to users who do not follow your rules and guidelines, as well as other desirable business benefits.
It's extremely important to have this agreement if you operate a SaaS app.
Here are a few examples of how this agreement can help you:
If users abuse your website or mobile app in any way, you can terminate their account. Your "Termination" clause can inform users that their accounts would be terminated if they abuse your service.
If users can post content on your website or mobile app (create content and share it on your platform), you can remove any content they created if it infringes copyright. Your Terms and Conditions will inform users that they can only create and/or share content they own rights to. Similarly, if users can register for an account and choose a username, you can inform users that they are not allowed to choose usernames that may infringe trademarks, i.e. usernames like Google, Facebook, and so on.
If you sell products or services, you could cancel specific orders if a product price is incorrect. Your Terms and Conditions can include a clause to inform users that certain orders, at your sole discretion, can be canceled if the products ordered have incorrect prices due to various errors.
And many more examples.
How to enforce Terms and Conditions
While creating and having a Terms and Conditions is important, it's far more important to understand how you can make the Terms and Conditions enforceable.
You should always use clickwrap to get users to agree to your Terms and Conditions. Clickwrap is when you make your users take some action - typically clicking something - to show they're agreeing.
Here's how Engine Yard uses the clickwrap agreement with the I agree check box:
Here's how The Guardian is placing the link to its Terms and Conditions webpage at the bottom of its webpages:
The legal page is simple and follows the design of The Guardian's website. But the agreement is lengthy and it has multiple clauses that are useful for The Guardian:
Registration
Termination of registration
Use of material appearing on the Guardian Site
Disclaimer of liability
Third party advertising on the Guardian Site
User content
Apps
Data protection
Changes to these terms and conditions of use
Governing law & jurisdiction (except for US users)
Indemnification
No waiver
The Terms and Conditions includes a short introduction that helps set the stage for the rest of the content.
KAYAK
The link to the Terms & Conditions of KAYAK is also placed in the footer:
The first paragraph of KAYAK's agreement is very clear for users:
Please read these terms and conditions of use carefully before accessing, using or obtaining any materials, information, products or services. By accessing, the KAYAK website, mobile or tablet application, or any other feature or other KAYAK platform (collectively "Our Website") you agree to be bound by these terms and conditions ("Terms") and our Privacy Policy.
Instagram
The Terms of Instagram are placed in the footer of Instagram's website:
Here's how Instagram places links to its Terms and Privacy information when users create a new account:
Spotify
Below is an example of the Spotify Terms and Conditions Table of Contents. Note how the sections deal with topics such as "Rights we grant you," "User guidelines," "Choice of law, mandatory arbitration and venue" and "Term and termination":
Perhaps the most important section of this legal document is the section that addresses how a user should use (or not use) your website and app.
In the Terms and Conditions of Spotify above, the "User Guidelines" section highlights a number of restricted user actions, including forbidding a user from:
Using the Spotify Service to import or copy and local files you do not have the legal right to import or copy in this way
Circumventing any territorial restrictions applied by Spotify or its licensors
Selling a user account or playlist, or otherwise accepting compensation, financial or otherwise, to influence the name of an account or playlist or the content included on an account or playlist
This article is not a substitute for professional legal advice. This article does not create an attorney-client relationship, nor is it a solicitation to offer legal advice.
Web sites and apps built with user-generated content are quickly becoming the norm.
There's the rapidly growing language-learning app Duolingo, numerous...
