Are website terms and conditions legally required in the UK?

Not as such, but several things on a website are: the company's name, registered number, registered office and VAT number (Companies Act and e-commerce rules), a privacy notice (UK GDPR), cookie information and consent (PECR), and for sales to consumers the pre-contract information and cancellation rights in the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013. Website terms are the usual place to put most of it.

What is the difference between website terms and terms of sale?

Website terms govern the use of the site itself: who may use it, your intellectual property, acceptable use, liability for the content. Terms of sale govern a purchase: price, delivery, cancellation, refunds. A site that only shows information needs the first; a site that sells needs both, and the rules differ for consumers and businesses.

Do consumers have a right to cancel online orders?

Usually yes: 14 days from delivery for goods and 14 days from the contract for services, under the Consumer Contracts Regulations, unless an exception applies (personalised goods, perishable items, digital content supplied immediately with consent). You must tell them, or the period extends to a year.

Can I copy terms from another website?

No. They are copyright, and they will have been written for a different business and often a different country. A template for England and Wales, adapted to what you sell, costs less than a dispute over a clause that did not apply to you.

News & Insights/Customers · 10 October 2026 · 7 min read

Website terms and conditions for a UK business: what the law actually requires

Every website has a terms page and almost nobody reads it, including the people who copied it from somewhere else. The law does not care whether it is read. It cares whether certain information is there and whether certain rights are honoured. Here is the list.

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01What must be on the site, whatever you sell

Who you are. A company must show its registered name, company number, place of registration and registered office address on its website, and its VAT number if registered. A trading name alone is not enough.
A privacy notice. UK GDPR requires you to tell people what you do with their personal data at the point you collect it. A contact form is enough to trigger this.
Cookie information and consent. PECR requires consent before non-essential cookies are set. Strictly necessary cookies do not need consent, but they still need to be explained.
Contact details that allow a direct and effective way to get in touch, including an email address.

Website terms are not themselves a legal requirement, but they are the sensible place for the first and last of these, with the privacy and cookie policy as a separate page.

02Website terms: use of the site

These cover the site as a thing people visit, regardless of whether they buy anything: that the content is yours and may not be copied; that users may not scrape, attack or misuse the site; that information on the site is general and not advice (important for a professional firm); that you may change or withdraw the site; a limit on your liability for the content, which cannot exclude liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence or for fraud; links to third-party sites are not endorsements; governing law and courts. The website terms and conditions template is this document, at £19.

03Terms of sale to consumers

If you sell goods, services or digital content to consumers online, the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 and the Consumer Rights Act 2015 decide most of the content. Before the order is placed you must give, in a clear way, the main characteristics, the total price including taxes and delivery, how to pay, delivery arrangements, the right to cancel and how to exercise it (with the model cancellation form), and your complaints handling. The customer must know they are committing to pay, which is why the final button says "Pay now" or "Order with obligation to pay" and not "Continue".

Consumers have 14 days to cancel most online purchases for any reason, and goods must be of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose and as described, with a 30-day right to reject faulty goods. You cannot contract out of these rights, and a term that tries is unenforceable and can attract enforcement action. The consumer terms of sale template is built around these rules.

04Terms for business customers

Business-to-business sales are governed mostly by what the contract says, subject to the Unfair Contract Terms Act's reasonableness test on exclusions. Here the terms do real work: payment terms and interest on late payment, delivery and risk, warranties and the limit of liability, IP in what is supplied, termination. For software sold as a subscription, use SaaS customer terms; for services, a master services agreement with statements of work.

05Making them binding

Terms bind a customer only if they had a reasonable chance to see them before the contract was made. Put a link to the terms on the order page, require a tick or a clearly labelled button, and record which version the customer accepted and when. Terms linked only in the footer, or shown after payment, may not be incorporated at all. Keep old versions, because the version in force on the date of the order is the one that applies.

06The short version

Company details, a privacy and cookie policy, and website terms on every site. Consumer terms of sale if you sell to the public online, written around the cancellation and quality rights you cannot exclude. Business terms, SaaS terms or an MSA if you sell to companies. The three website documents, website terms, privacy and cookie policy and consumer terms of sale, are £19, £19 and £39; the first two are also in the SaaS launch pack.

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