How to write terms of service that will actually hold up

Terms of service (also called terms and conditions or terms of use) are the rules of the deal between your business and the people who use your site or buy from it. Unlike a privacy policy, no general US law says every website must have them. But if you sell online, take subscriptions or let people post content, they do real work, and a court will only enforce them if customers actually agreed to them.

This guide covers what terms are for, what to put in them, the store and subscription rules that sit alongside them, and the part most businesses get wrong: how to present them. If you're still deciding which legal pages you need, start with why your website needs legal pages.

This is not legal advice

Chykalophia is a growth partner for B2B companies and manufacturers, not a law firm. This guide explains what courts, statutes and payment platforms say about website terms, and how we build sign-up and checkout flows. It is not a substitute for legal advice. Contract and consumer law differ by state and country. Have a qualified attorney draft or review your terms, especially the sections on liability, disputes and arbitration.

Do you need terms of service?

We found no general US law requiring an ordinary website to publish a document called "terms of service". What the law does require, in specific situations, is that you give buyers certain information, and terms are the usual place to put it:

Subscriptions and auto-renewals. Federal law (the Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act) requires anyone charging US consumers online through a recurring or free-to-paid offer to disclose all material terms before taking billing details, get express informed consent before charging, and give a simple way to stop the charges. California's Automatic Renewal Law adds more (see below).
Selling to consumers in the EU or UK. Their consumer laws list what you must tell buyers before an online sale, including your identity and contact details, the total price and the cancellation rules.
Your payment processor. PayPal's US user agreement says sellers must publish customer service contact details and a refunds and returns policy. Stripe's website checklist says most businesses must clearly explain their refund, shipping, return and cancellation policies, and Stripe may ask you to add them.

Even where nothing requires them, terms are how you put your rules in writing: what you sell and on what conditions, what people may and may not do on your site, who owns what, and how disputes get handled.

Selling to businesses?

Most EU and UK consumer rules below, such as the 14-day cancellation right and the unfair-terms rules, protect consumers: people buying outside their trade or business. Business buyers are mostly outside them. Website terms still matter for a business-to-business site, for sign-ups, content and how people may use the site, but the main deal with a client is usually better set out in a signed agreement than in website terms.

What terms of service do for you

They set the rules of the deal

Prices and payment, delivery, refunds and cancellations, what's included in a service, what happens if an account is misused. When a customer disputes a charge, a clear, published refund policy that they agreed to is far easier to point to than an email thread.

They can decide how disputes are handled

Federal law makes a written arbitration agreement in a contract involving commerce "valid, irrevocable, and enforceable", unless ordinary contract defences apply. That's why many terms include arbitration clauses, and why so many of the court cases below are fights over whether customers really agreed to one. Arbitration and class-action waivers have real trade-offs; this is a section for a lawyer to draft.

They can limit your liability, within limits

Terms commonly cap what you owe if something goes wrong. The law sets limits on that. In US sales of goods, the model Uniform Commercial Code allows limits on consequential damages unless they're unconscionable, and treats limiting liability for personal injury from consumer goods as presumptively unconscionable. UK law goes further: a business can't use consumer terms to exclude liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, an unfair consumer term isn't binding, and terms can't remove a buyer's statutory rights to goods of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose and as described. A "no refunds, ever" line doesn't override those rights.

They're part of protecting you if users post content

If people can upload, comment or post on your site, US copyright law's "safe harbor" from infringement claims over their content comes with conditions. One is that you've adopted and reasonably implemented, and told users about, a policy of terminating repeat infringers; your terms are the usual place to tell them. Another is registering a designated agent with the US Copyright Office and listing it on your site. There are others, so ask a lawyer to set this up.

What to put in them

There's no single legal checklist for terms of service, so treat this as the usual structure. Write it in plain language: UK law requires consumer terms to be transparent, meaning plain, intelligible and legible, and US courts generally won't hold people to online terms they had no reasonable notice of.

Who you are. Business name, address and contact details.

What you offer. The products or services, and any conditions on who can buy or use them.

Ordering, prices and payment. How orders are accepted, what's included in the price (taxes, shipping), and when you charge.

Refunds, returns and cancellations. Often a separate page, linked from the terms and from checkout. Payment processors expect it.

Subscriptions. Renewal terms, how and when you charge, price-change notice, and exactly how to cancel.

Accounts and acceptable use. What users must and mustn't do, and what happens if they break the rules.

Content and intellectual property. Who owns your content, what rights you need over anything users post, and your repeat-infringer policy if they can post.

Warranties and limitation of liability. What you promise and what you don't. Have a lawyer write this part.

Disputes. Which state's or country's law governs, and whether disputes go to court or arbitration. Also a lawyer's job.

Changes to these terms. How you'll notify existing customers of changes (see below), and the effective date.

How to present them so they hold up

Most of what makes terms enforceable isn't the wording. It's whether the customer was shown them and agreed. US courts have come back to this question again and again since at least 2002.

What that means for your site

Best: a checkbox or "I agree" step that people must complete before they can buy or sign up, with the terms linked right next to it. This is what courts call clickwrap.
Acceptable if done well: a sentence at the button, such as "By clicking Place order, you agree to our [Terms of Service] and [Refund policy]." Put it directly next to the button, in readable type, with links that look like links, on an uncluttered screen.
Not enough on its own: a footer link. Keep it there too, so people can find the terms later, but don't rely on it.
Changing your terms: tell existing customers. In Douglas v. U.S. District Court (9th Circuit, 2007), a phone company added new fees and an arbitration clause by posting revised terms on its website. The court said "Parties to a contract have no obligation to check the terms on a periodic basis to learn whether they have been changed by the other side." For important changes, such as adding an arbitration clause, notice alone may not be enough: tell customers directly and ask them to agree again.
Avoid "we can change these terms at any time without notice". It's the clause that helped sink Zappos's arbitration agreement (see In re Zappos below).

The court cases behind this

These are the cases the advice above comes from.

Specht v. Netscape (2nd Circuit, 2002). People downloaded free software by clicking "Download". The licence terms, including an arbitration clause, were only mentioned on a screen below the button. The court held users weren't bound: they had no reasonable notice of the terms, and clicking Download didn't show they agreed to them.
Nguyen v. Barnes & Noble (9th Circuit, 2014). Barnes & Noble's Terms of Use were linked at the bottom of every page and near the checkout buttons. When a customer sued over a cancelled order, the company tried to force arbitration. The court refused: a conspicuous link on every page, even close to the buttons, wasn't enough without a prompt to agree. In the court's words, "the onus must be on website owners to put users on notice of the terms to which they wish to bind consumers."
In re Zappos.com (federal court in Nevada, 2012). After a data breach, Zappos tried to send customers' claims to arbitration under its Terms of Use. The court found the terms "inconspicuous, buried in the middle to bottom of every Zappos.com webpage among many other links", with nothing directing users to them. It also found the arbitration clause illusory, because Zappos had kept the right to change its terms at any time.

A clear "you agree" at the button: can work, if it's done well

Meyer v. Uber (2nd Circuit, 2017). Uber's sign-up screen said "By creating an Uber account, you agree to the TERMS OF SERVICE & PRIVACY POLICY" directly under the button, with the links in blue, on an uncluttered screen. The court held the notice was reasonably conspicuous and that registering showed agreement.
Berman v. Freedom Financial Network (9th Circuit, 2022). The notice sat above a large green "continue" button in tiny grey text, and the links were only underlined. The court held the consumers weren't bound, and set out a two-part test: the site must give reasonably conspicuous notice of the terms, and the person must take an action, such as clicking a button or ticking a box, that unambiguously shows agreement. A click only counts if the person is "explicitly advised that the act of clicking will constitute assent".
Oberstein v. Live Nation (9th Circuit, 2023). Ticketmaster showed "By continuing past this page, you agree to the Terms of Use" right above its Sign In button, and similar wording above Place Order, with the terms in bright blue. The court enforced it, but warned that this hybrid style "invites second-guessing" and that "clickwrap is the safest choice."

Every one of these cases was about an arbitration clause, because that's what businesses most often try to enforce. Courts apply the same contract rules to the rest of your terms, though, so the safe assumption is that any term only binds people who were properly shown it and agreed.

If you sell to consumers in the EU or UK

These rules protect consumers buying online from a business. How they reach a business based outside Europe is a question for a lawyer, but if you actively sell to customers there, plan on meeting them.

Tell buyers the key facts before they orderWho you are, your address, phone and email, the total price including taxes, delivery and payment arrangements, and the cancellation rules.
Consumers can cancel within 14 days without giving a reason, with some exceptions. For goods, it usually runs from delivery.
If you don't tell them about the right to cancel, the period stretches by up to 12 months. A missing returns page has a direct cost.
In the EU and the UK, the order button must make clear that ordering means paying, such as "order with obligation to pay". If it doesn't, the consumer isn't bound.
Since 19 June 2026, EU rules require a "withdraw from contract here" button (or equally clear wording) for contracts made online, available throughout the cancellation period, followed by a "confirm withdrawal" step and an acknowledgement. Each EU country puts this into its own law, so check the details for the countries you sell to.
UK consumer terms must be fair and transparent. An unfair term doesn't bind the consumer.

If you sell subscriptions

Federal law (ROSCA) requires you to show all material terms before taking billing details, get express informed consent before charging, and provide a simple way to stop recurring charges.
California's Automatic Renewal Law requires the renewal terms to be shown clearly and conspicuously, close to the consent request, and affirmative consent before charging. If people can sign up online, they must be able to cancel online, at will and without steps that obstruct or delay it, through a prominently located link or button or a ready-made cancellation email. If you show a retention offer while someone is cancelling online, you must also show a "click to cancel" link or button alongside it. You must also keep proof of consent for at least three years, or one year after the contract ends if that's longer. The law was amended in 2024, and the changes apply to contracts made, amended or extended from 1 July 2025, so recheck older subscription flows.
The FTC's 2024 "click to cancel" rule is not in force. A federal appeals court vacated it in July 2025, and the FTC formally restored the earlier rule in February 2026. In March 2026 the FTC asked for public comment on whether to amend that rule. ROSCA and state laws still apply.
The UK's new subscription rules are expected from January 2027. The government has said they will come into force in January 2027, though the detailed regulations were still in draft when we checked. If you sell subscriptions to UK consumers, plan for them now. (GOV.UK)

Using a generator

Most of the generators in our privacy policy guide also write terms: Termly, TermsFeed, GetTerms, Enzuzo and Termageddon include them, iubenda includes them on its higher plans, and Shopify's admin and free generator offer terms templates. Stripe publishes sample shop terms of use under a Creative Commons licence as a starting point (see its website checklist).

A generator is fine for the plain parts: who you are, ordering, refunds, acceptable use. Have a lawyer review the parts with legal teeth: liability, warranties, governing law and arbitration. A template clause can't know your risks, and the cases above show what happens when a business relies on terms it never properly put in front of customers.

Common mistakes

Only a footer link, with nothing at checkout or sign-up.
Tiny, low-contrast "by clicking you agree" text, or links that don't look like links.
Changing terms by quietly editing the page.
A "no refunds" policy that ignores consumer law where your buyers live.
Subscription sign-up online, cancellation only by phone, which California's law doesn't allow for subscriptions people accepted online.
Terms copied from a bigger company that describe services, rights and disputes that don't match your business.

Common questions

Is a "terms and conditions" page different from "terms of service"?

The names are used interchangeably. What matters is the content and whether people agreed to it.

Do I need terms if I only have a brochure site with a contact form?

No law we found requires them for that. You do need a privacy policy. Some businesses add short terms of use covering their content and the information on the site; that's a choice, not an obligation.

Do I need a separate refund policy?

If you sell online, yes in practice: PayPal requires one if you accept PayPal, Stripe expects one for most businesses, and EU and UK consumer rules require you to explain cancellation rights. Link it from your terms, your checkout and your footer.

Can we build the agreement step into our checkout?

Yes. We can add the checkbox or "you agree" wording at sign-up and checkout and make the links obvious. Whether the site can also keep a record of when each customer agreed depends on your platform, so ask us. Tell us which pages you want people to agree to.