Consumer contracts

Before entering into a contract, you need to provide a consumer with certain information. The information must be presented in a clear and easily understandable way, such as a notice, price list or a written contract that a consumer can easily read. In general, the following pieces of information need to be provided for all types of contracts:

• the main characteristics of the goods, services or digital content
• your identity including your business name, address and contact details
• the total price of the goods, services or digital content including taxes (or how the price is calculated)
• any additional delivery charges, or advice that charges may be payable
• any arrangements for payment, delivery, performance, and the time by which you will deliver the goods or perform the service
• details of any complaint handling policy
• in the case of a sales contract, a reminder that (as the trader) you are under a legal duty to supply goods under the contract
• the existence and the conditions of any after-sales services and commercial guarantees
• details of any duration of the contract, or conditions for terminating the contract if it will be automatically renewed
• details of functionality if you are supplying digital content
• compatibility details for digital content with hardware and software

If you fail to provide this information or provide it incorrectly you may have breached your contract with a consumer, and they could seek redress under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

For on-premises contracts, you don’t have to provide information that’s already evident to the customer. For example, your business name and address can be omitted if it is clearly displayed on the premises. Similarly, a description of an item is unnecessary if it’s already obvious what the item is, for example - a dictionary. 

The requirement to supply all the information listed above does not apply to on-premises sales for day-to-day transactions where the consumer buys and gets the goods straight away. For example, buying a newspaper, a cup of coffee or groceries. However, information such as price and main characteristics must still be given.