Fine Print Friday is a weekly column where I examine and analyze Contracts that affect many of us in our daily lives. Each installment will point out a few interesting provisions the average reader may not have noticed.
Fine Print Friday: Lessons from GameStation
This week’s Fine Print Friday will not consist of me going through a contract provision by provision. Rather, it will serve as more of a reminder of what sort of trouble a person can get into when not reading a contract before signing it (and what kind of value can be had by reading it carefully instead).
On April 15, 2010, GameStation (a United Kingdom-based video game retailer) announced that it had included an “Immortal Soul Clause” in its terms and conditions on April 1, 2010 to see if people were reading them. Apparently, 88% of people using the site during the time that the new clause was inserted (about 7,500) granted their immortal souls to Game Station. Conversely, 12% who actually read the terms and conditions found the crazy clause, clicked an opt-out box, and received a gift voucher worth 5 British Pounds in the process.
The text of the Immortal Soul Clause read:
“By placing an order via this web site on the first day of the fourth month of the year 2010 Anno Domini, you agree to grant Us a non transferable option to claim, for now and for ever more, your immortal soul. Should We wish to exercise this option, you agree to surrender your immortal soul, and any claim you may have on it, within 5 (five) working days of receiving written notification from gamesation.co.uk or one of its duly authorised minions. We reserve the right to serve such notice in 6 (six) foot high letters of fire, however we can accept no liability for any loss or damage caused by such an act. If you a) do not believe you have an immortal soul, b) have already given it to another party, or c) do not wish to grant Us such a license, please click the link below to nullify this sub-clause and proceed with your transaction.”
(Text found at Consumerist)
Since I’ve done a number of Fine Print Fridays so far, I thought it would be a good time to draw out a few overarching thoughts from them, in light of GameStation’s brilliant and funny joke/promotion.
1. The Fine Print Matters: Whether you read it or not, if you sign a contract or accept terms and conditions, you are bound by them. Even on tiny transactions or simple contracts for service there is language that directly pertains to the rights and responsibilities of everyone involved. And the force of the agreement is just as strong when buying a video game online as it is when merging two Fortune 500 companies.
2. Know What Applies to You: Not every term in every agreement applies to you. For the Travelocity FPF, for instance, I had to sift through a lot of provisions about hotels, cruises, rental cars, and more that did not pertain to what I was looking for because I was only concerned with the purchase of airline tickets through Travelocity. Although the headings in contracts are usually deemed to be there only for ease of reading, using them can save a person a lot of time when sifting through the provisions.
3. Don’t Read Every Contract: I know that sounds absurd coming from me, and generally I think that contracts and terms-and-conditions should be read thoroughly before agreeing to them. But these documents have gotten too long and unruly for a person to read the entirety of every contract s/he encounters. We would be spending the better part of our lives reading contracts if we read everything. The key is to determine the risk of not reading the contract, and determine if that risk is acceptable. For most everyday things, it is–if for no other reason than we don’t get to buy the video game if we don’t agree to the terms and conditions. But when it comes to credit cards, mortgages, major purchases, and other transactions that can affect our physical and financial health and well-being, then it’s a good idea to read it all, and read it slowly.
4. Immortal Soul Clauses Are Rare: And unenforceable. You should be okay…even if you did give your soul to GameStation.
More fantastic Fine Print Fridays are coming up, but don’t forget to suggest your own ideas for either general topics or specific contracts you would like to see reviewed.
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Graham Martin is a solo practitioner focusing on Contract law (including drafting, review, and litigation). He operates Martin Legal Services, LLC in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I suspect that there might be problems with jurisdiction and enforceability of an Immortal Soul clause. I cite in defense the fantastically fun case Mayo v. Satan and all his minions: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_ex_rel._Gerald_Mayo_v._Satan_and_His_Staff
Interesting… contract law is nuts.
Some idle questions that might be interesting to cover sometime:
Any generalizations as to how someone can guesstimate which provisions in a contract are enforceable?
Is there any downside to sticking all sorts of probably-unenforceable provisions in a contract? (E.g. if some provisions are unenforceable, does that weaken the other provisions?)
How can you tell if a contract is ‘adhesive’, and how much does being adhesive weaken the contract?
That’s a fantastic case; we were introduced to it in our first semester of law school. So I suspect that it would be difficult to find the defendant, but not necessarily that the clause is in the wrong jurisdiction or unenforceable. Remember: the clause was written as part of a contract in the UK, not in Hell; and the beneficiary is GameStation, not Satan. It would be hard to tell, however, if said soul had been transferred. Perhaps we could get some psychics to help with that.
All good questions! I will definitely try to address those in the near future. Thanks for the suggestions.