GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF USE

Legal Disclaimer

The explanations and information provided on this page are only general, high-level explanations and information on how to draft your own terms of use. You should not rely on this article as legal advice or recommendations regarding what you should actually do, as we cannot know in advance what specific terms you wish to establish between your business and your customers and visitors. We recommend consulting a lawyer to help you understand and assist you in creating your own terms of use.

That said, the Terms of Service (“TOU”) are a set of legally binding terms defined by you, as the owner of this website. The TOU establishes the legal boundaries governing the activities of website visitors, or your customers, while they visit or interact with this website. The TOU are intended to establish the legal relationship between website visitors and you as the website owner.

Terms of Service should be defined based on the specific needs and nature of each website. For example, a website offering products to customers as part of e-commerce transactions requires different terms of service than a website providing only information (such as a blog, landing page, etc.).

The TOS allow you, as the website owner, to protect yourself against potential legal exposure, but this may differ from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, so be sure to receive local legal advice if you are trying to protect yourself against legal exposure.

What to include in the T&Cs document

Generally speaking, the T&Cs often address these types of issues: Who is allowed to use the website; possible payment methods; a statement that the website owner may change its offering in the future; the types of guarantees the website owner provides to its customers; a reference to intellectual property or copyright issues, if applicable; the website owner's right to suspend or cancel a member's account; and much more.

To learn more about this, see our article “Creating a Terms of Service Policy.”