Terms and Conditions (Accessibility) Bill

A Bill to, in recognition of the fact that terms and conditions documents on the internet are unwieldy and deliberately obfuscative, require that all terms and conditions documents are legible and understandable to the average person with no knowledge of law.
Bill ID CB8-11
Author(s) The Rt Hon Sir Arthur Haigh KCTL GCVO OOBE MBE PC MP
Amended by N/A
First reading 2022 April 7
Royal assent TBA
Commencement TBA
Affected legislation N/A

Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—

1 Definitions

  1. "Terms and conditions document", hereafter referred to as "Document(s)" refers to conditions that must be agreed to by the user to access the service to which the terms and conditions apply.
  2. "Legible and understandable" means text or a piece of writing that uses non-specialist legal language, that an avereage user would be able to understand with a standard grasp on English.

2 Provisions for Legibility

  1. The carrying-out of surveys for legibility and its enforcement will fall under the banner of a newly-created "Commission on Terms and Conditions Legibility," referred to hereafter as the Commission, which will be a constituent part under the portfolio of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
  2. The Commission will be formed of a minimum of 12 experts within the field of contract law, and will be presided over by the Secretary of State, and will present its findings to Parliament on a twice-yearly basis.
  3. The Commission will use the following criteria to define what makes a good Document:
    1. The Document is not of excessive length for a user to be willing to read.
    2. The Document does not use special legal language not readily understood by the average user.
    3. The Document does not attempt to deliberately enthrall the user through a legal loophole,
    4. or otherwise attempt to mislead the user.

3 Provisions for a Report

  1. The Commission must present its initial findings no later than six months from the commencment of this Act to Parliament assembled.
  2. The Commission may request an extension by the Secretary of State, such that:
    1. The report would be unfinished or inappropriate unless an extension is granted.
    2. The report would otherwise be considered incomplete.

4 Short title, commencement and extent

  1. This Act may be cited as the Terms and Conditions (Accessibility) Act 2022.
  2. This Act enters into force upon receiving royal assent.
  3. This Act extends to the whole United Kingdom and its overseas territories.
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