Who Asks for Terms & Conditions?
Banks and third-party online services are asking for Terms & Conditions before allowing businesses to use their online services. Additionally, Terms & Conditions may be required for promotional giveaways or fundraisers. Here are some of the most common items in Terms & Conditions that my clients have needed to organize.
Source of Common Items in Terms and Conditions
Shauna McGee Kinney has worked for Perth-based ad agencies and their clients to prepare the information for online business, contests and fundraisers. The client takes this information to a lawyer to create a Terms & Conditions or Terms of Use document.
The 20 most common types of information requested by a lawyer when creating a Terms & Conditions documents fall roughly into 4 groups. If you have a novel product or innovative service, you can save yourself time by talking to a lawyer before starting. Inventive new products may require details beyond what is discussed here.
Business Information
Six business identity items typically collected for a lawyer:
1.) ABN and/or ACN
2.) GST status of the business
3.) Registered business address
4.) Names of legal owners of the business
5.) Email and phone numbers for customer service
6.) The ‘WhoIs’ identity of the domain name owner
Online Purchase Processes
Five online processes to research and summarise for your lawyer:
7.) The process a customer goes through to find and purchase your product or service
8.) The process a customer goes through to complain or request a refund
9.) Refund, cancellation and dispute resolution procedures
10.) A list of the products or services and prices
11.) List of marketing plans for discounts or promotions
Technical Information
Six technical points to discuss with the lawyer:
12.) Payment gateway and Internet Banking Facility security, fraud and privacy requirements
13.) Any special liability issues, e.g. for content posted by website visitors
14.) Third-party services’ privacy or security requirements you need to list and meet
15.) The software and plugins running your website, online store and security
16.) Users’ Internet connectivity, data usage, OS / mobile / software version requirements
17.) How your office staff access the data and where the data is stored
If You Are Running a Contest or Promotion
Three optional groups of contest or promotion details can be collected for your lawyer:
18.) Finding each Australian State Lotteries Commissions’ forms & rules
19.) Organise the data required by the State Lotteries Commissions rules
20.) Notes on how the tool (social media, software or third-party service) effects how your contest is run
Organise Your T&C Info
The above list is my opinion and not legal advice. This list of common items in Terms and Conditions is an editorial opinion based on her experience working with digital agencies, online businesses and lawyers. My list is reasonable preparation before you talk to your lawyer. In other words – you can save money by not paying your lawyer to do admin work. Use your lawyer’s time for legal services!
Save Money & Save Time
Shauna provides a hybrid service helping you research and organise the common items in terms and conditions. She will work with you by phone and email to gather and write summaries of the common items you need for a Terms & Conditions document.
If you are an Australian business and don’t have an attorney, Shauna recommends James Irving (http://irvinglaw.com.au/). James has helped several of Shauna’s Perth-based clients with their business law and personal legal services. Through Shauna, you can engage James for a fixed-price review of your T&Cs and other policies. He and I are streamlining the process and building a system to keep the time and costs down. Give Shauna a call or drop me an email for more information.