General terms and conditions
Legal warning
The explanations and information provided on this page are only general and high-level explanations and information on how to write your own Terms and Conditions document. You should not rely on this article as legal advice or recommendations on what you should actually do, as we cannot know in advance what the specific terms and conditions you wish to establish between your business and your customers and visitors are. We recommend that you seek legal advice to help you understand and assist you in creating your own Terms and Conditions.
General terms and conditions - basics
Having said that, the Terms and Conditions (“T&Cs”) are a set of legally binding terms and conditions defined by you, as the owner of this website. The T&Cs establish the legal boundaries governing the activities of website visitors or your customers while visiting or engaging with this website. The T&Cs are intended to establish the legal relationship between site visitors and you, as the owner of the website.
The TOS should be determined according to the specific needs and nature of each website. For example, a website that offers products to customers in electronic transactions requires TOS that are different from the TOS of a website that only provides information (such as a blog, landing page, etc.).
TOS provide you with the ability to protect yourself from potential legal risks as a website owner, but this may vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, so make sure you obtain local legal advice if you are trying to protect yourself from legal risks.
What to include in the Terms and Conditions document
Generally speaking, TOS often cover these types of issues: Who is entitled to use the website; the possible payment methods; a statement that the website owner may change its offering in the future; the types of guarantees the website owner provides to its customers; mention of intellectual property or copyright issues, where applicable; the website owner's right to suspend or cancel a member's account; and much more.
To learn more about this, check out our article “Creating a Terms of Service Policy.”