{"id":35977,"date":"2020-06-15T15:53:11","date_gmt":"2020-06-15T14:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ccpc.ie\/business\/?p=35977"},"modified":"2020-06-16T08:58:57","modified_gmt":"2020-06-16T07:58:57","slug":"changes-to-terms-and-conditions-in-consumer-contracts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ccpc.inventise.ie\/business\/changes-to-terms-and-conditions-in-consumer-contracts\/","title":{"rendered":"Changes to terms and conditions in consumer contracts"},"content":{"rendered":"

The restrictions introduced due to COVID-19 to limit the spread of the virus has led to wide-spread cancellation or deferral of events and services, which has had a significant impact on consumers and businesses. For many businesses who provide services to consumers, their standard form contracts will contain terms specifically setting out the rights of both parties in the event of a cancellation or a termination of the service by either party, and the obligations on each party as a result of the cancellation or termination.<\/p>\n

However, the unforeseen nature of the COVID-19 situation has brought about unprecedented circumstances and, as a result, businesses may be considering changing the terms and conditions in their standard form contracts, particularly in relation to cancellations, rescheduling and refunds.<\/p>\n

The CCPC is concerned that businesses may change or add additional terms and conditions in existing consumer contracts, without advance notification to consumers or an opportunity for them to exit the contract without penalty if they do not wish to accept the business\u2019s proposed change. \u00a0Seeking to bind existing consumers to new or amended terms without the consumer\u2019s agreement, constitutes an unfair commercial practice under the Consumer Protection Act 2007. Such newly inserted terms without consumer agreement are also likely to be unfair under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations.<\/p>\n

Under consumer protection law, contracts must be fair and balanced, protecting the interests of both parties. Businesses are expected to take consumers\u2019 legitimate interests into account when drafting their standard form contracts.<\/p>\n

The CCPC has published guidelines to assist businesses<\/a> in ensuring that consumers are not bound by unfair terms in their contracts, a summary of which is as follows:<\/p>\n

Unfair Terms Regulations <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The European Communities (Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts) Regulations 1995, as amended, (Unfair Terms Regulations) provide specific protections to consumers who enter into standard form contracts for goods or services. A standard form contract is a contract between two parties, where the terms and conditions of the contract are set by one of the parties (usually the business), and the other party (the consumer) has little or no opportunity to negotiate or change the terms.<\/p>\n

The Unfair Terms Regulations act as a control against the use by businesses of unfair terms in their standard form contracts with consumers.\u00a0 They are a set of legal rules and principles which require businesses to act in good faith, to deal openly and fairly with consumers to ensure contract terms do not mislead or cause surprise and to present those terms to consumers in plain language. To demonstrate the meaning of fairness it also provides a non-exhaustive list of terms which may be unfair. Unfair terms are those terms which significantly imbalance the contract to the detriment of the consumer. In effect, a term is unfair if it puts the consumer at an unfair disadvantage or is harmful to the consumer\u2019s interests.<\/p>\n

Here are a number of examples of -potentially unfair terms:<\/p>\n