Trade and treat customers fairly

You are legally obliged to avoid using unfair standard terms in written or spoken contracts. Businesses develop standard terms for use in contracts. They are not negotiated with the consumer. In written contracts, the standard terms are usually found in the small print.

A standard term is unfair if it causes a major imbalance in the parties' rights and obligations under the contract, to the detriment of consumers. If your contract does include an unfair standard term, it is not binding on the customer.

Businesses must express standard terms in plain and understandable language. A customer should be clear about its meaning. If there is doubt as to what a term means, the meaning most favourable to the consumer will apply.

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 regulates the use of unfair terms. The exceptions are terms:

• that reflect provisions which by law you must include in contracts
• that have been individually negotiated
• in contracts between businesses
• in contracts between private individuals
• in certain contracts that people do not make as consumers - for example, relating to employment or setting up a business
• in contracts entered into before 1995

Common standard unfair terms can lead to:

• misleading consumers about the contract, or their legal rights
• denying consumers full redress if things go wrong
• tying consumers into the contract unfairly
• the business not having to perform its obligations
• consumers unfairly losing prepayments if the contract is cancelled
• the business varying the terms after the customer has agreed to them - eg to supply a different product, increase the price, or reduce consumers' rights
• consumers being subject to unfair penalties

The law protects businesses as well as individual customers against unfair contract terms. See business to business sales contracts.

Customer complaints about unfair standard terms

If a customer thinks you have used unfair contract terms, they can complain about it to:

• the Northern Ireland Trading Standards Service
• the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)
• the Utility Regulator
• Which? - the consumers' association

See the page on customers' rights to challenge unfair contract terms in our guide on customer protection.

Enforcing unfair standard terms regulations

The FCA cannot determine whether a term is or is not unfair, or whether any individual consumer is entitled to compensation. However, they do have a duty to consider any complaints about the unfairness of a contract term, and if they believe that a term is unfair, they have the power to ask a court for an injunction to prevent it from being used or recommended for use. However, only the courts can finally decide whether a term is or is not unfair.