Terms and conditions apply: Have you ever probed this phrase?

Most of the apps that people use have terms and conditions that many of people never seek to understand. Photo by Eronie Kamukama

What you need to know:

  • According to Nada Andersen, the best adverts meet consumer expectations and tell them everything about them.
  • Terms and conditions apply: Perhaps you have heard of or come across this phrase. But have you ever cared to understand how it might affect you at some point?

Some of the most inviting adverts are crafted by telecoms but the irony is how they quickly throw in a line - “terms and conditions apply” - after they have excited your glands.
However, have you ever asked why the phrase is thrown around so casually.
Right, perhaps you have never. Apparently, it is a legal escape that advertisers or any other company will count on when they are faced with legal pitfalls.
In the period leading to Easter, a supermarket published eight pages of “massive price breaks for your break,” promising low prices that beat any other on the market.

However, at the lower end of the page there was an almost invisible inscription that read; “terms and conditions apply”.
From the way it is written sometime - Ts & Cs apply - it is easy to miss and sometimes it will be hard to interpret for a layman.
A quick search reveals very few people, including Shannon Kukunda, ever pay attention to the reference that they admit have either read off print adverts or heard via broadcast media.
“I think it means there are costs involved, something like that,” Immaculate Ndyamuhaki, who admits to have heard of the phrase says, highlighting how many people never pay or pay very little attention to the phrase.

Relates well
However, for Phiona Kisaakye, she easily relates with the phrase, especially that she has encountered it several times while downloading apps.
“I read them if they are short,” she says adding: “For things like bank loans, the terms and conditions can be several pages and written in very small letters”, which sometimes forces her to skip them.
Ruth Agaba, just ignores as she presses ‘next’ before understanding anything about the “terms and conditions”.

While Agaba just accepts Catherine Kyarisiima, attempts to read through but finds them quite complex and so legalistic.
“The language is sometimes too complicated. And other times I do not agree with the terms but I need the app,” she says.

“Terms and conditions” according to Nada Andersen, the chairperson of Uganda Advertisers Association, protect the advertiser and they have less to do with the products.
In this regard, she says, goods are created with an end-result in mind but they have conditions such as warrants and price waivers, among other things that come between.

Terms and conditions, just like some phrases in contracts, are disclaimers that define consumer expectation, which if the company fails to meet, can provide a safety valve not to be sued as it improves.
Ruth Sebatindira, a lawyer, says terms and conditions should be a concern for every consumer because they “are rules that the user of the service has to follow”.
“Ordinarily you do not see them at the face of the contract but they are there and are applied. You have to understand them so in a way do not disregard them,” she says.

Elison Karuhanga, a partner at KAA Associates, explains it plainly, saying that if for instance, an advert says buy one, get one free and adds the phrase ‘terms and conditions apply’, the company is not bound by the contents of the advert and there is no guarantee that you will be served as per the advert.
“Terms and conditions is not an offer. It is an invitation,” he says, adding: “If they do not say terms and conditions apply, they will be bound by what they have put out as the offer.”

From a business perspective, Karuhanga says, it is advisable for enterprises to include them in deals or risk exposure.
However, according to Kenneth Muhangi, the phrase is sometimes a legal requirement that businesses must include.
“Our basic law of contracts say you can only validly enter into a contract once you set terms,” Muhangi says and emphasise that it is important for people who use digital platforms to understand these terms because they inform certain issues that the consumer might not agree with.

However, consumers also have the duty to ask about the terms and conditions and if they are inaccessible at the time of buying the product they might be challenged in court, according to Muhangi.
“If you do not read the terms, it means you accept to use the service before you pay, technically the law assumes you have adopted those terms especially if the other party has brought them to your attention,” he says.
However, he says, the phrase must be visible enough and if it not a consumer should challenge the dealer to furnish they with detains of the Ts & Cs.

How fair are terms and conditions?

According to Nada Andersen, the best adverts meet consumer expectations and tell them everything about them.
Adverts, she says, must be clear and honest without hidden innuendos that manipulate customers.
All terms and conditions are negotiable depending on the service but Muhangi confesses that most of them hardly favour consumers because it is almost impractical for them to negotiate all the time.

For digital transactions, Sebatindira says, transparency must be ultimate and all parties must have equal bargaining power because courts will inquire into the fairness of terms and conditions if there is a dispute.
“Consumer protection association has to negotiate as a group to improve terms and conditions in this market because a good number of them (terms) are situational and industry specific.”