Apple bows to UK’s OFT over online terms

Rating: terms and conditions changed for iTunes et al

Naughty Apple Inc has agreed to change its iTunes – that is the terms and conditions which it offers to consumers thanks to the UK’s Office of Fair Trading (OFT).  Significantly this agreement extends to the online iTunes stores as well as its hardware sales.

Amongst the changes to be made by Apple Inc are that its T’s & C’s should no longer “exclude liability for faulty or mis-described goods.”

The most telling sentence, however, is the one stating that Apple’s standard terms should not “potentially allow changes to be made to products and prices after an agreement is made.” That sounds like a particularly dangerous legal situation has been averted.

Perhaps the most surprising comment is that Apple’s T’s & C’s should be “drafted in plain or intelligible language.” A telling comment for a company which prides itself in keeping things very simple.

‘The contract or terms of use between a company and a consumer, whether they are found online or on paper, must be clear, fair and easy to understand,” commented Jason Freeman, legal director with the OFT Consumer Markets Group.

So, just because an agreement is made online, the laws of the land will apparently now apply in the UK if the OFT has any say in the matter.