Test Case
Website Terms and Conditions
are Considered a Contract...
In the case of
Southwest
Airlines Co. v. BoardFirst, LLC, a Texas court held that
a user of a website was bound by the terms and conditions of
that website where the user has actual knowledge of such terms
and conditions.
The Plaintiffs,
Southwest airlines maintained a first come, first served, open
seating policy, where passengers are arranged in groups. The
Defendant, Boardfirst.com was an internet company that provided
a service to Southwest customers whereby for a fee, a passenger
could check in early and BoardFirst would attempt to get the
passenger into the first boarding group.
Southwest filed
suit against BoardFirst alleging that BoardFirsts service was
a violation of the Southwest Web site's terms of service
because the terms of service stated that the user agreed that
he/she shall not use the Southwest site for any purpose other
than personal, non-commercial reasons.
This case turned
on two major points.
First, the court
examined whether the terms of service were a valid contract.
The court held that so long as the user has "actual or
constructive knowledge" of the terms and conditions of
the user agreement, the terms of service are a valid contract.
The court held that BoardFirst had actual knowledge of
the terms and conditions because they were clearly
displayed via a link on the Southwest homepage, hence
creating a binding contract between Southwest
and BoardFirst.
Secondly, the court
determined that BoardFirst had violated the terms and conditions
by using the site for commercial purposes even though they were
acting as agents for Southwest’s customers. Therefore,
the court ordered a permanent injunction which would stop BoardFirst
from ever using Southwest’s website.
The court further stated that although it knew that the court’s
order would cause the dissolution of BoardFirst as a company,
it was the only way to ensure that BoardFirst would stop its
unauthorized use of Southwest’s website.
United
States Law
The Pro Backing
Tracks website is covered by US law which states that if you
have a website, you must publish the terms of use that your
users should accept. The terms of use should be accessible from
the main homepage (please see http://www.probackingtracks.com
- "terms of use" link is displayed on the left-hand
side navidgation bar AND at the bottom of the page).
These terms protect the website owners interests, even if the
website owner has no futher interactions with the customer,
such as online trading, data collection or allowing publication
of notices (noticeboards).
The terms and conditions published on a website also apply to
websites hosted in all other parts of the world.
