Exclusion Clauses in Contracts
An exclusion clause is a type of clause that appears in a contract when one party tries to limit or exclude itself from liability. If the law did not prevent it, then large companies would use and abuse these clauses to protect themselves. Consumers have already “agreed” to hundreds of terms and conditions when they buy goods and services, so the laws protecting them from unfair exclusion clauses are important. In this article we will review what statutory controls are in place to protect consumers and consider recent changes to the law.
The two key statutes that control the use of exclusion clauses are
- the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977, and
- the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999.
The Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 (UCTA)