Questions tagged [adhesion-contracts]
An adhesion contract (also called a "standard form contract" or a "boilerplate contract") is a contract drafted by one party (usually a business with stronger bargaining power) and signed by another party (usually one with weaker bargaining power, usually a consumer in need of goods or services). The second party typically does not have the power to negotiate or modify the terms of the contract.
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Can a company get out of honoring a subscription by demanding a new terms of service contract?
Say I have a year-long online subscription to the New York Times.
Say that, a few months into the term of my subscription, the New York Times' web site begins to refuse service to me, instead ...
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Why do Chief Justice Roberts, and Judge Posner, knowingly not read fine print? [closed]
Many cases underscore "the importance of reading and understanding the terms and conditions of the contract". See Toll (FGCT) Pty Ltd v Alphapharm Pty Ltd [2004] HCA 52, [43].
More recently,...
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Do early termination fees hold up in court?
Adobe is being sued by the FTC for including an unadvertised 50% early termination fee (ETF) in their “annual paid monthly” plan. The FTC seeks to have Adobe recompense the users, make cancellation ...
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Can I browse-wrap a book?
In this answer it is noted that if your browse-wrap terms of service on your web site are sufficiently prominent to put the user on "inquiry notice", essentially so that they're aware that ...
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Can I set additional terms of service for "my" page on a third-party service?
A lot of web sites, like Github or Facebook, have terms of service for the platform as a whole but also let me publish stuff on pages that I have some control over. I can post a README file on my ...
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Can I sneak around my copyleft obligations with adhesion contracts?
Some licenses, like the GPL, mandate that I license derivative works under the same license and not a more restrictive license. I believe this is called "copyleft".
But say I want to have ...
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Can a manufacturer make using a product purchased secondhand constitute accepting a contract?
Say I buy a physical product secondhand from an individual for cash, with no particular terms attached to the transaction.
Then, say I visit the manufacturer's web site, and encounter a terms of ...
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How much opportunity to review terms is necessary to form a contract?
Someone makes me a contract offer for, say, a health insurance plan. They set a deadline by which I must accept or reject the offer.
I inquire as to the full terms of the offer. They say that the ...
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Can a public school require a student to contract with a third party?
Can a public K-12 school require a student to accept a contract with a private third party, as a condition of enrollment or as a condition of passing enough courses to graduate?
For example, a student ...
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Terms of Service and Adversarially Interoperable Apps
Applications like NewPipe and Geddit seem to be becoming more popular. These applications are "adversarially interoperable": they work with and can display content from large services such ...
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Does Google routinely form contracts by accessing web sites with their crawler?
Many web sites contain terms of service, where the web site puts a link to "Terms" or similar, and anyone who accesses the web site forms a contract with the web site operator under those ...
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Use-wrap contract formation for locally-run licensed software
In this answer, the Microsoft Windows license agreement is describe as having a sort of use-wrap method of action, where using Microsoft Windows creates an agreement between you and Microsoft because ...
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A representative guides one through the signing of a contract; e.g. internet services. What empowers them to do this? What are they, legally?
I'm looking for some legal terms and concepts related to the empowerment of a representative to guide someone through the signing of a contract. Is there a legal concept for such a person? ...
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Two-Way Browse-Wrap
I often browse web sites that offer me contract terms via "browse-wrap": there is a link on the page to a "Terms of Service" or similar, and my browsing the web site, having had ...
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Avoiding agreeing to, or amending, digital contracts (redux)
A recent question asks whether one can escape the terms of an adhesion contract by orally rejecting the terms while making a confirmation in writing.
It seems likely the answer is no, as the written ...
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Avoiding agreeing to, or amending, digital contracts
Say you are presented with a digital checkbox or a pin pad, a contract with some terms you do not genuinely consent to, and a business process of the counterparty that cannot proceed unless the box is ...
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Can written notices such as company terms and conditions be rejected on grounds of being too long
Sometimes companies post 30 page terms and conditions notices that an end user must accept by clicking in a box. Can such agreements be rejected well after the fact (after clicking) on grounds like:
...
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Does judicial estoppel apply to adhesive contract interpretation?
Large corporations are unique, in that they (1) enter into adhesive contracts with millions of people, (2) get sued a lot, and (3) often use outside counsel.
What happens if a corporation—probably ...
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Are contracts of adhesion that require you to agree to them before viewing them legally enforcable?
I recently was looking to switch plans from one major cell phone carrier to another, which included a promo for a free phone. This was done in the United States. At the point where I was to sign ...
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How to refer to an unknown signer, in the parties section of an agreement
Have an agreement that will be signed by someone but we want to reuse the agreement and not edit each time to add the signers name.
My question is how can I refer to the signer at the top of the ...
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If I copied an agreement and sent it as an email and had someone reply with the fields and "I agree" would it be a valid contract?
Have been getting agreements(contracts) signed electronically using Sites like Hello Sign and Docusign, but the problem is people do not always view the agreement, and then it does not get signed.
My ...
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Where is a TOS binding without affrimative acceptance? Where is it not?
When a website uses a "browser wrap" or "agreement of adhesion" approach to its Terms of Service (ToS) document, relying on language such as:
Each time you access and/or use any ...
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Whose meaning prevails in a consumer contract of adhesion?
A consumer calls his bank and requests that his account be closed.
The bank says that the account has been closed, and changes the status of the account such that the account can no longer be used to ...
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If extra terms are added to a contract by email, is it considered valid/legal?
This is for a software consulting position for 6 months in India. During the interview, I mentioned to the tech manager that:
I can work only for a limited number of hours per day due to a health ...
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Does the US have a rule about onerous contract terms in the fine print?
In the UK there is a legal precedent that unusual or onerous contract terms must be correspondingly prominent; you can't hide them in the fine print of a standard contract. If you try the other party ...
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How much from the trial is won/lost by the contract itself?
A while ago I heard in a YouTube clip (I think it was from Legal Eagle channel) something like "95% of the contract disputes are won/lost directly by the contract itself"; unfortunately I ...
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Is it against a Terms of Service/End-User License Agreement to not read it?
In many Terms of Service/End-User License Agreements, there is a statement either as art of the confirmation check box to agree to said agreement and/or as a part of the agreement itself that says ...
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Company in administration in Portugal
If a company is being run in administration are contacts/agreements still valid ? For example, a service legal agreement.
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if all customers always violate a contract, is enforcement legally impossible?
Hypothetical case for U.S. law (close to reality but simplified here):
A company offers advertising. Customers may get paid by publishing the advertising. The customers presumably want to do this in ...
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Is it still a contract even if it is described by a party as "not a contract" even if adhesion law applies between multiple parties?
Suppose two parties have a relationship that might be a contract under U.S. law. Suppose one party is an individual and the other is not, so that if it's a contract it would be a contract of adhesion, ...
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Can I amend boilerplate contracts by mail?
I am party to a number of contracts (website terms of service, for example), where a service operator writes the contract, and I agree to the contract by using the service. If the other party wants to ...
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Can companies legally make unreasonable term of service?
Say you buy a software. There is a term in the term of service that you got to pay $1 million dollar/become sex slaves, etc.
To what extend companies can do that?
There are 2 cases where something ...
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Contract question
If you sign a contract, and the person asking you to sign explains nothing, but there is a part you totally miss (Maybe it's in a tiny font at the bottom of a page, or hidden somewhere.), you sign the ...
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Should I use first-person (I) or second-person (you) for ToS consent?
This is a bit of a nagging question for me. Let's say I'm creating a web application that allows users to sign up for some service, subject to certain terms of service. I've seen some sites use first-...
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How does one supreme court case set the standard for all following cases?
I was reading about forced arbitration clauses, or class action wavers, which are a type of contract of adhesion which can come with some products and services. Historically, these were deemed ...
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Can a product's manufacturer attach conditions (such as an arbitration agreement) to the sale of its product by third parties?
TL;DR
Is the contract of sale, including binding arbitration, referenced on the packaging of Western Digital (WD) products legally binding?
To summarise the relevant facts:
This is a contract of ...
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Silent modification of a document
From time to time one is presented with adhesion contracts which have not been signed by the presenting party, and contain terms which are unpalatable.
Were one to modify the contract in ways which ...
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