C/L/91. Standard Terms for Hotel Chocolat, O2 and Embossed Internet: An Analysis

Not every contract is bilateral, i.e. negotiated between the two parties. Often, contracts are drafted beforehand by one party with the intention that it should applied to all business transactions. These are known as standard terms. The aim of this paper is to analyse three sets of standard terms, from three different types of companies: a food company (Hotel Chocolat), a mobile phone operator (O2) and an IT company (Embossed Internet). It will identify the following types of terms from the set: complaints procedure, cancellation clause, limitation clause, prevailing law clause, force major clause and arbitration clause. It will also determine the extent to which the Unfair Terms Act 1977 and Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 apply to the individual sets of standard terms. Finally, there is a scenario outlining how a contract could come into existence, a dispute between the parties and how the terms of the contract would be relevant in resolving that dispute.