Why do you need terms and conditions?

Terms and conditions agreement defines and governs the relationship

between a website owner or service provider and its users or customers. You
need terms and conditions to avoid any bad surprises and misunderstandings
and to ensure a smooth, transparent business relationship with your users.
Why are terms and conditions important?
You wouldn’t enter into a business relationship in real life without signing a
formal contract setting out the terms of your agreement. Terms and
conditions are the equivalents for your website or mobile application.

Having a terms and conditions agreement can help protect your business
from disputes that could otherwise have been easily avoided.

If your users or customers have a set of guidelines to refer to and to guide

their behavior, they would be hard-pressed to do something that goes against
those rules and act surprised about the consequences (account termination,
for example). It will also allow you to decide how and where disputes should
be handled.

It could also deter third parties from copying or using your work without
permission if you include a copyright clause reiterating your ownership of the
materials on your website among many other things.
What should terms and conditions include?
What needs to be included in terms and conditions varies widely depending on
the type of business that you operate. As a general rule, it should set out any
rules that govern the use of your website or product, include appropriate
disclaimers and limitations of liability, and confirm copyright ownership.

You can then add on to this depending on the nature of your business. If
accounts are created you may want to have rules for termination and
suspension. If user-generated content is allowed you may want to address
ownership and usage rights of that content, as well as set out what is
acceptable or not.
Are terms and conditions legally binding?
Can you use someone else’s terms and conditions?
No, you should never copy and paste someone else’s terms and conditions.
You can of course have a look at what your competitors and other players in
your industry are doing for inspiration, but your terms and conditions should
be unique to your business.
You decide the rules that govern your website or application, so someone
else’s terms and conditions may not even be applicable to your business. You
must also take into consideration the particularities of your product or service
as well as the inherent liabilities, if any, to include the proper disclaimers and
limitations of liability.

Not to mention that copying terms and conditions word for word from another
website could be considered an infringement of copyright, which could
potentially land you in some serious trouble.
How do you write terms and conditions?
You could get some inspiration from other similar businesses and write your
own from scratch, which may be risky unless you have the proper legal
background.

You could call on the services of a lawyer to draft the document for you, which
will ensure that it contains all required elements and that it will hold up in
court.

Or you could use a terms and conditions generator, which will give you a
custom and complete agreement in a manner of minutes. This is a cost-
effective and reliable
solution.
Where should your terms and conditions be displayed?
It is good practice to include a link to your terms and conditions in your
website footer as this makes it easily accessible to your users.

You should also put your website visitors on notice that terms and conditions
apply and request their consent for your agreement to be considered legally
binding. You could do so during the sign-up process or with a pop-up when
people first land on your website.

If you own an eCommerce website, you may wish to include a reminder during
the checkout process mentioning that, by placing an order, the customer
acknowledges and agrees to your terms and conditions.