What are disclaimers? Why are they so important when it comes to protecting your business? What should a disclaimer say?
In this post, we explain the importance of disclaimers and give you some practical examples.
What are disclaimers?
Disclaimers are statements that can help protect you and your business. They help you limit your responsibility, define the conditions under which you may be held liable, or protect your content from misuse.
Disclaimers are pretty important because they, along with a solid set of terms and conditions, can act as your first layer of legal protection: if you clearly define your conditions and rules (within applicable law, of course), it may help reduce your responsibility, in case something bad would happen.
For example, if you’ve ever looked up your symptoms on the internet (yes, we know you did), you’ve most certainly seen that every website or blog about health has a disclaimer in place where they state that the information they provide can’t be taken as a diagnosis. In this way, they are limiting their responsibility.
That’s how disclaimers work.
How to write a disclaimer?
The first thing you should know is that there are lots of different disclaimers for different purposes: the limitation of liability clause defines the conditions under which you may be held liable; the disclaimer of warranty protects business owners from the malfunction of their product or service; disclaimers on content limit your responsibility in relation to your content, etc.
So, a good way to start may be asking yourself: “What could possibly go wrong?”.
The answer to this question will vary from individual to individual, from business to business; that’s why disclaimers are so specific!
Once you’ve identified what could cause a problem for your business, you’ll be able to select the right disclaimers for your situation.
3 tips for writing your disclaimers
Writing a legally sound disclaimer may be difficult if you don’t have legal expertise.
However, here’s a general rule of thumb:
- Be simple and concise: you want your users to understand what you’re saying, so don’t write an excessively long paragraph and avoid using terms difficult to understand.
- Address the main liabilities: when can you be held liable? And, on the other hand, what’s outside of your control?
If your product or service can somehow cause risk or damage to your users, it’s better to specify that too. It’s also important to address any issue regarding the warranty if that also applies. - Make it visible: since they play such a big role, disclaimers should be visible or accessible throughout your website or app. The option is to either add them to your website’s footer as Health.com has done:
Where should you put your disclaimers?
Now that you have your disclaimers, the next question would be: where do you put them on your website?
As mentioned above, one of the best ways to ensure that your disclaimers are seen as legally valid is to ensure that users can actually see and access them.
In general, best practice is to:
- Make the disclaimer easily accessible from every page of your site. For example, you can add it to your footer, as we showed in the previous paragraph.
- Or, you can add your disclaimers in your Terms and Conditions document.
Terms and Conditions are a legally binding document, a contract between you and your users. They’re the perfect place to add your disclaimers because terms usually define your website or app’s rules. This is how we’ve done it!
You can learn more about Terms and Conditions here.
Examples of disclaimers
Now let’s look at some examples of the most common types of disclaimers, to have a clearer idea of what we’ve described so far.
Limitation of liability
The limitation of liability clause defines the conditions under which you may be held liable.
Disclaimer of warranty
The disclaimer of warranty protects business owners from the malfunction of their product or service, releasing them from legal liabilities.
Disclaimers on content
If you share information that could be misinterpreted, misused or could potentially cause harm, you can add disclaimers that limit your responsibility in relation to your content. Take, for example, this excerpt taken from the web:
“The contents of this website, such as text, graphics, images, and other material contained on the WebMD Site (“Content”) are for informational purposes only. The Content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.”
How iubenda can help
iubenda can help you protect your business through disclaimers.
Our Terms and Conditions Generator allows you to easily generate professional, lawyer written disclaimers for every scenario.
If you’re not sure what disclaimers you need, the built-in quiz and tool tips will guide you to ensure a professional setup tailor-made for you. Try it risk-free for 14 days.
About us
The solution to draft, update and maintain your Terms and Conditions. Optimised for eCommerce, marketplace, SaaS, apps & more.
www.iubenda.com
See also
- How to Write Terms and Conditions
- What Are the Terms and Conditions and When Are They Needed?
