Guidance

Unfair contract terms: CMA37terms

Guidance to help businesses make sure their contract terms and notices are fair and clear to consumers.

Documents

Unfair contract terms guidance

Unfair contract terms explained

Unfair contract terms flowchart

Details

We are planningrefreshing to update this guidance to make it easier to understand. We willare consultconsulting on draft revised guidance, inand dueinvite course.your feedback by 19 March 2026.

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 updates the law on the use of unfair contract terms in consumer contracts.

This guidance for businesses will help you to understand what makes terms and notices unfair, and what the risks are if you use unfair wording. It gives advice about how you can make sure contract terms and notices are fair and clear.

In addition to this guidance, we have a series of fair terms guides that help explain what to avoid when writing your terms.

Updates to this page

Published 31 July 2015
Last updated 22 OctoberJanuary 20252026 + show all updates
  1. Consultation on draft revised guidance published.

  2. Update published about refreshing this guidance.

  3. First published.

Sign up for emails or print this page