Website terms of use act as guidelines for all visitors to your website or app, governing how they interact with your platform. They play a vital role in safeguarding your business by protecting your website from unauthorised use, protecting your intellectual property from misuse or illegal reproduction, and limiting your liability to users if they encounter any issues while using your website (such as viruses/malware).
Although website terms of use are not required by law, they are crucial to shielding your business and ensuring your website runs efficiently and successfully. It is important to note that they differ from your Cookie policy and Privacy policy, which explain how you will gather and use information from people who access your website, and your Terms and conditions of sale, which provide the terms on which you sell your goods or services.
Our Website terms of use template streamlines the drafting process, allowing you to quickly and easily draft suitable terms for your website. It includes a copyright notice to protect the contents of your website and a general disclaimer to help protect you from liability (eg in the event that someone using your site gets a virus). It also includes clauses to protect you from users that submit content to your website in an undesirable way (eg if a person posts confidential material or content that breaches intellectual property rights in a comments or forum section of your website).
For a helpful checklist to assist you when creating your website, see Checklist of information to include to ensure your website is legally compliant.
Using the website terms of use template
- Follow this link.
- Click ‘Get started’.
- Complete the questionnaire with details of your business and sales (see below for the information you will need to provide).
- Download the completed document and read through it carefully to ensure it covers your situation appropriately. If you are unsure what any of the clauses mean, seek legal advice. You can access a specialist lawyer in a few simple steps using our Ask a Lawyer service.
- Upload the terms of use to your website.
Information required to complete the website terms of use template
When using the template, you will be required to supply the following information:
1. Business details
You should state whether your business is a limited company, LP or LLP, sole trader, or general partnership.
If your business is a limited company, LP or LLP, you will need your Companies House registration number. You should also provide your business name and address.
2. Whether your business is registered for VAT
Generally, you must register for VAT and charge it on your goods or services if your turnover for the previous year is more than £90,000 or you believe your annual turnover will exceed the £90,000 per annum threshold in the next 30 days. For more information on this, as well as how and when to register for VAT, see our Q&A here.
3. The date on which the policy and/or terms of use will be published
This is the date on which you wish the terms to come into effect.
4. Whether you wish to allow users to submit content to your website
For example, whether users will be able to leave reviews or comments, or upload images on your website or app.
Uploading and maintaining your terms of use
You should ensure that your website terms of use are obviously visible to your customers and other users. Providing a link at the top or bottom of every page will give easy access for your website visitors.
If you change the way you run your website or any business details change, you must ensure your terms of use are updated to reflect these changes. When updating your terms, you must ensure changes are not unfair to customers. Whether your changes are fair will depend on what term you are changing and whether you have given users reasonable notice and an opportunity to stop using the service. Changing terms around the use of your website (eg changing the type of content users are allowed to post) is likely to be fair because users can simply decide not to use your website if they do not agree with the change.
If you use our template Website terms of use, you can change your terms of use (and notify your customers of these changes) at any time by posting an updated version on your website. This gives customers the option to stop using your website if they are not happy with the new terms. However, changes to your website terms of use should be limited to how you allow a customer or visitor to use the website, and should not be confused with making material changes to terms and conditions of sale (like pricing or delivery).
If you make significant changes to how a person can use your website, it may be advisable to notify customers via email or by using a pop-up banner on your website. You should also change the date of publication on your terms of use when you make any changes.
Terms and conditions for sales online
If your website or app has sales functionality, you will need separate terms and conditions for sale. You must ensure that sales terms are available on your website for customers to review prior to making purchases. See Terms and conditions for sales online for guidance and templates.
If you wish to change your terms and conditions of sale, you should get your customer’s consent. See Terms and conditions of sale for further guidance on changing terms and conditions of sale.
The content in this article is up to date at the date of publishing. The information provided is intended only for information purposes, and is not for the purpose of providing legal advice. Sparqa Legal’s Terms of Use apply.
Marion joined Sparqa Legal as a Senior Legal Editor in 2018. She previously worked as a corporate/commercial lawyer for five years at one of New Zealand’s leading law firms, Kensington Swan (now Dentons Kensington Swan), and as an in-house legal consultant for a UK tech company. Marion regularly writes for Sparqa’s blog, contributing across its commercial, IP and health and safety law content.