This chapter assesses exemption clauses and unfair terms. Exemption clauses are terms that either exclude or limit the liability of a party. The law relating to the use of such clauses is a mixture of rules found in both the common law and legislation; the common law rules apply to all contracts. In addition, the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 applies to the use of exemption clauses in contracts between two businesses. For consumers, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 provides wider protection from unfair terms including exemption clauses. The practical context of exemption clauses is simple. One party will be in breach and so the other will seek compensation for the loss caused by the breach. The party in breach will then defend the action by relying on an exemption clause. The dispute is then about whether or not the clause can be relied upon. The circumstances in which terms might be assessed for being ‘unfair’ can be wider than this. Typically, a business will take action against a consumer following the consumer’s failure to perform an obligation, which will then prompt the consumer to challenge the obligation as based on an unfair term.
Chapter
7. Exemption Clauses and Unfair Terms
Chapter
6. Exemption Clauses and Unfair Terms
Jack Beatson, Andrew Burrows, and John Cartwright
This chapter discusses the common law and statutory rules governing exemption clauses, and the control of unfair terms. Written contracts frequently contain clauses excluding or limiting liability. This is particularly so in the case of ‘standard form’ documents drawn up by one of the parties or a trade association to which one of the parties belong. At common law there are special rules on the incorporation of exemption clauses, special rules of construction applicable to them, and a few miscellaneous other common law rules designed to control them. The chapter first considers those common law rules before going on to the legislative control of exemption clauses and unfair terms. The focus of the discussion of statutory control is the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 for non-consumer contracts, and the Consumer Rights Act 2015 for consumer contracts.
Chapter
8. Terms of the contract II: common law and statutory controls on unfair terms
Titles in the Core Text series take the reader straight to the heart of the subject, providing focused, concise, and reliable guides for students at all levels. This chapter examines potentially unfair terms, including exemption clauses, in a contract. It considers the common law’s response to exemption clauses and other potentially unfair terms, and discusses statutory schemes to regulate them. It covers the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 (UCTA) which governs exemption clauses in non-consumer contracts, subjecting them to a requirement of reasonableness where the contract was made on standard terms. It also discusses in detail the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (CRA), which regulates terms in consumer contracts, prohibiting certain exclusion clauses completely and imposing a general test of fairness upon all terms apart from the core terms.
Chapter
8. Terms of the contract II: common law and statutory controls on unfair terms
Titles in the Core Text series take the reader straight to the heart of the subject, providing focused, concise, and reliable guides for students at all levels. This chapter examines potentially unfair terms, including exemption clauses, in a contract. It considers the common law’s response to exemption clauses and other potentially unfair terms, and discusses statutory schemes to regulate them. It covers the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 (UCTA) which governs exemption clauses in non-consumer contracts, subjecting them to a requirement of reasonableness where the contract was made on standard terms. It also discusses in detail the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (CRA), which regulates terms in consumer contracts, prohibiting certain exclusion clauses completely and imposing a general test of fairness upon all terms apart from the core terms.
Book
Paul S. Davies
Driven by exposition of the leading cases, JC Smith’s The Law of Contract offers the perfect balance between accessibility and authority. The strong focus on cases guides the reader through the intricacies of contract law with expert analysis ensuring key points are clear. The text begins with an introduction to contractual rights and duties. It looks at objectivity in contract law, the formation of bilateral and unilateral contracts, contract as agreement, offeror and offeree, estoppel, legal relations, and the role of third parties. It also considers the terms of the contract, interpretation of the contract, implication and rectification, and exclusion clauses and unfair terms. It goes on to look at issues such as duress, undue influence, good faith, capacity, illegality, contractual assumptions, breach of contract, remedies and damages, and remedies beyond compensatory damages.
Chapter
9. Exemption clauses
This chapter begins the discussion of unfair terms. It deals with the common law rules relating to exemption clauses, and introduces the problems, as well as the benefits of standard form contracts. It looks at the common law rules dealing with incorporation and construction (interpretation) generally, and their use by the courts to deal with unfair exemption clauses, and the evolution of the use of such approaches in the light of legislative policing. In particular, it deals with incorporation by signature, notice (including the ‘red hand’ rule), and a course of dealing. It looks at construction post-UCTA (Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977), and post-Investors, particularly Wood v Capita and decisions since. The Canada Steamship rules and the distinction between limitation and exclusion clauses are noted. The tension between freedom of contract and protecting the party with weaker bargaining power is emphasized. The chapter addresses how the Consumer Rights Act 2015 has impacted the law.
Book
Koffman, Macdonald & Atkins’ Law of Contract provides a clear, academically rigorous, account of the contract law which is written in a style which makes it highly accessible to university students new to legal study. It works from extensive consideration of the significant cases, to provide students with a firm grounding in the way the common law functions. There are chapters on formation, certainty, consideration, promissory estoppel, intention to create legal relations, express and implied terms, classification of terms, exemption clauses, the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977, unfair terms in consumer contracts, mistake, misrepresentation, duress and undue influence, illegality, unconscionability, privity, performance and breach, frustration, damages, and specific enforcement, as well as companion website chapters on capacity and an outline of the law of restitution. Recent cases which are of particular note in this, the tenth edition, include the Supreme Court cases of: Wells v Devani (2019) on interpretation and implied terms, Pakistan International Airlines Corporation v Times Travel (UK) Limited (2021) on lawful act economic duress, Morris- Garner v One-Step (Support) Ltd (2019) and Triple Point Technology Inc v PTT Public Company Ltd (2021) on the law of damages, and Tillman v Egon Zehnder (2019) on illegality and severance, re-affirmed in the Court of Appeal ruling in Quantum Actuarial LLP v Quantum Advisory Ltd (2021). Further important Court of Appeal decisions include: TRW v Panasonic (2021) on ‘battle of the forms’, Ark Shipping v Silverburn Shipping (2019) on classification of terms, FSHC Holdings v GLAS Trust (2019) on the equitable remedy of rectification, considered within the chapter on the doctrine of mistake, and Classic Maritime Inc v Limbungan Makmur (2019) on the interpretation of force majeure clauses and the scope of the doctrine of frustration, issues which rapidly elevated in significance leading up to Brexit and upon the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Notable first instance decisions which have tested frustration in light of these events include Canary Wharf (BP4) T1 Ltd and others v European Medicines Agency (2019) in the context of Brexit, and Salam Air SAOC v Latam Airlines Group SA (2020) on the impact of Covid-19. Additional High Court rulings considered within this edition include Sheikh Tahnoon Bin Saeed Bin Shakhboot Al Nehayan v Ioannis Kent (2018) and Bates v Post Office Ltd (2019) on good faith, and Neocleous v Rees (2019) on electronic signatures coupled with the findings of the Law Commission Report on Electronic Execution of Documents (2019) Law Com No 386.
Chapter
13. Controlling contract terms
Exclusion clauses, penalties, and consumer protection
This chapter examines how the law regulates contract terms, with particular emphasis on rules that are intended to protect weaker parties. It begins with a discussion of the limits of freedom of contract and proceeds by assessing the role played by formal requirements, such as the requirement that contracts be in writing. It then considers how the law regulates contract terms which seek to alter the liability that one party will have in the event of breach. More specifically, it looks at exclusion clauses in the common law and the statutory regulation of such clauses, along with liquidated damages, contractual remedies, and the rule against penalties. It also explores the extent to which consumer protection law restricts the terms that can be included in consumer contracts, especially when dealing with the problem of unfair terms.
Book
Mindy Chen-Wishart
Contract Law offers a new approach, utilising diagrams and commentary boxes to complement the text. The book explains the intricacies of contract law by reference to the questions that arise during the life of a contract. Part I of the book introduces contract law. Part II looks at contract formation: the finding of agreement and meeting the criteria of enforceability. Part III focuses on the position of third parties who may benefit or be burdened by the contract. Part IV considers the reasons for allowing a party to escape the contract, namely the vitiating factors of misrepresentation and non-disclosure, mistake, frustration, duress, undue influence, and unconscionability. Part V looks at how to determine the contents of contracts: express, implied, and collateral terms, and examines their interpretation and enforceability. Part VI considers the breach of a contract and the availability of the remedies of termination, damages, and specific and agreed remedies. Part VII examines whether obligations of good faith should be recognised in current contract law and how that might affect the way we understand contract law.
Chapter
11. Direct control over terms
This chapter examines direct legal controls over the contents of contracts, with particular emphasis on the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 (UCTA) and the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (CRA). The pattern of control under UCTA and CRA is discussed, compared, and contrasted in terms of: the types of contracts covered; the parties who can benefit from, or be detrimentally affected by, the contract; the types of terms subject to control; the control mechanisms such as of outright invalidity and a test of reasonableness or fairness; and the enforcement mechanism, whether by the individual complainant or by a statutory body. Other statutory and common law controls of terms are also briefly discussed, as is the question of whether control of substantive unfairness by contract law can be justified.
Book
This book provides choice extracts, supported by clear commentary and useful learning features. The text starts with an introduction to contract law. Part I looks at creating the contract, with coverage of the offer, acceptance, the legal partnership, and consideration and promissory estoppel. Part II is about the content of the contract and performance. It looks at the terms of the contract, exemption clauses, and unfair terms and issues related to breach and termination of the contract. Part III is about enforcement of the contract. It considers compensatory damages following a breach as well as third-party rights and non-compensatory remedies. Part IV explains the facts that end a contract such as misrepresentation, duress, frustration, and mistake.
Book
Robert Merkin KC and Séverine Saintier
Poole’s Casebook on Contract Law provides a comprehensive selection of case law that addresses all aspects of the subject encountered on undergraduate courses. Extracts have been chosen from a wide range of historical and contemporary cases to illustrate the reasoning processes of the courts and to show how legal principles are developed. The book begins with some guidance on reading cases, and then turns to agreement and agreement problems. Next, it looks at the enforceability of promises and intention to be legally bound and the capacity to contract. The content of the contract is examined. Exemption clauses and unfair contract terms are analysed in detail. The book then considers initial impossibility, misrepresentation, duress, undue influence, and illegality. The book ends by discussing issues relating to breach of contract and remedies, and excuses for non-performance.
Book
Robert Merkin QC and Séverine Saintier
Poole’s Casebook on Contract Law provides a comprehensive selection of case law that addresses all aspects of the subject encountered on undergraduate courses. Extracts have been chosen from a wide range of historical and contemporary cases to illustrate the reasoning processes of the courts and to show how legal principles are developed. The book begins with some guidance on reading cases, and then turns to agreement and agreement problems. Next it looks at the enforceability of promises and intention to be legally bound and the capacity to contract. The content of the contract is examined. Exemption clauses and unfair contract terms are analysed in detail. The book then considers initial impossibility, misrepresentation, duress, undue influence, and illegality. The book ends by discussing issues relating to breach of contract and remedies, and excuses for non-performance.