Unfair Contract Terms

Abstract This chapter is concerned with contractual clauses that exclude or limit liability, usually on the part of the seller. It begins with the methods adopted at common law. These consist of controls imposed to ensure that the terms are duly placed before the buyer, either by reasonable notice or by the buyer’s signature. The chapter then turns to the restrictive way that these clauses have been interpreted in the past, noting that modern legislation has dispensed with any overly strict interpretation of contractual clauses between arms’-length parties. The legislation (the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977) is then considered and, throughout, account is taken of the removal of most of the statutory rules in the case of consumer sales to the Consumer Rights Act 2015.