Huntley Legal's Blog

Do you sell goods to business customers online? If yes, here are some of the things you need to think about with regard to your terms and conditions, and how you process the sale.

Please note this advice is relevant when customers place their order via your website, rather than reading your terms online and buying via another channel.

When you think about discrimination, do you initially consider how it relates to recruitment and employment?

Most people do.

They are aware that their business processes have to be fair to ensure discrimination doesn't happen as part of their recruitment process, in the way that their employer:employee relationships work, and in the way their employees deal with each other.

You probably know there are certain protected characteristics, including race, sex, religious belief, sexual orientation, disability and age. And you'll know that job applicants and employees are entitled not to be deprived of opportunities, or treated less well than others due to one of those protected characteristics; essentially, that they mustn't be treated in a way that's discriminatory.

You're aware you must make 'reasonable adjustments' for disabled employees, make proper arrangements for pregnant employees and those on maternity leave, and that employees mustn't be harrassed (bullied or made to feel uncomfortable), nor victimised (treated badly) because they are supporting someone with a protected characteristic.

But you also need to remember you have similar obligations in relation to your customers and potential customers. This article explains more.

If you are a main contractor supplying your clients with IT services, or running a call centre, or staging an event, it’s unlikely that you’ll have ALL the equipment, staff and expertise in-house for EVERY contract you work on. At times, you’ll outsource to sub-contractors.

This article explores some of the risks involved.

When making new business-to-business deals, you may think it's OK to sign the other party's contract without taking advice, perhaps because your budget is tight or because you're too trusting.

Some contracts are blatantly simple and don't need a sophisticated review. But others are clumsily drafted, or might contain sneaky clauses that benefit the other party.

It might only take an hour for your lawyer to check the contract. So please ask! It's always better to get everything sorted out right at the beginning. If/when you fall out or problems arise later, it can take a long time to untangle the mess and will cost you a lot more.

This article includes some of the things to look out for.

Most business contracts end with some standard text, sometimes known as 'boilerplate' and often repeated from one contract to the next.

It's not uncommon for clients (and their lawyers) to slightly neglect these clauses. But it can be a problem, so they are worth a look. They are designed to protect you, but it might turn out that some clauses add nothing in a particular scenario so can be dispensed with altogether.

In uncertain economic times, many people start to worry. Small businesses – and even big ones – become concerned about whether they can manage all their commitments, and may start to wonder if they can get out of any supplier contracts they are tied into.

This article explores some of the ways you can terminate a contract without adverse consequences.

It's been a longstanding practice to prevent businesses from being able to assign their rights under a business-to-business (B2B) contract to another business.

It has been normal to include a clause saying that you can't legally transfer a B2B contract to another party. This clause was usually expressed as a prohibition in the benefits and obligations section, and applied whether you were the supplier or the customer. The other common version of the clause was one that prevented the supplier from making such an assignment, unless the customer agreed, but gave the customer more freedom to do so.

There's now been an important change to what you can do with B2B contracts.

We still don't know what the final outcome of Brexit will be, but a new year is a good time to look ahead at things we know we can plan for.

These are some of the legal areas will potentially be affected, regardless of whether and when the UK leaves Europe, and on what terms.

Even five or six years ago, there were not many businesses that were entirely online. Most developed an online presence as part of their overall business.

Today, there are an increasing number of businesses that solely exist online. They have no shop-front or offices, and no premises for customers to visit.

People understandably look for simplicity and try to keep costs down, so they often go ahead and set up a website without taking legal advice first. But this is naive. Once the business is up and running, their business model may need changing which can lead to a lot of hard work and expense.

If you are starting a business online or migrating it online, there are a whole bunch of risks and legal issues to consider. Here are a few of them.

Last month we wrote about buying business assets. This month we look at it from the other point of view, and give advice about what to do in the early stages of planning to sell your business assets (as opposed to selling shares in your business).

Let's assume you've already taken tax advice and decided that you want to sell all or part of your business assets as a going concern.

Many sellers rush to find a buyer, and do little or no preparation before the sale. But doing sufficient preparation early on means the sales process will be smoother once you find a buyer, boost the value of the assets, and enhance the likelihood of the sale going through.