Links & Law - Information about legal aspects of search engines, linking and framing

Hyperlink & Search Engine Law News  Decisions & Court Documents Worldwide Legal Resources (Hyperlink & Search Engine Law Articles) Linking Law Cases Search Engine Law Publications by Dr. Stephan Ott Technical    Background

 "Terms and Conditions of Sale" / "Privacy Policy" provided by hyperlink create binding contract

Hubbert v. Dell

An Illinois appeals court held that plaintiffs who purchased computers over the defendant's website were bound to an arbitration clause contained in the "Terms and Conditions of Sale,” even though they were not required to click on an “I agree” button specific to those terms of sale. To make their purchases, each of the plaintiffs completed online forms on five of the defendant's Web pages.  On each of the five Web pages, the defendant's "Terms and Conditions of Sale" were accessible by clicking on a blue hyperlink.  According to the court "the blue hyperlinks on the defendant's Web pages, constituting the five-step process for ordering the computers, should be treated the same as a multipage written paper contract.  The blue hyperlink simply takes a person to another page of the contract, similar to turning the page of a written paper contract.  Although there is no conspicuousness requirement, the hyperlink's contrasting blue type makes it conspicuous.  Common sense dictates that because the plaintiffs were purchasing computers online, they were not novices when using computers.  A person using a computer quickly learns that more information is available by clicking on a blue hyperlink."

  • Hubbert v. Dell, Decision of August 12, 2005, Appelate Court of Illinois, Fifth District

    Court enforces Online Agreements, Including Terms Accessibale Via Hyperlink

 

JetBlue Airways Corp. Privacy Litigation

Plaintiffs brought this action against JetBlueAirways Corporation for alleged violations of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 and violations of state and common law. In their view defendants violated their privacy rights by unlawfully transferring their personal information to Torch for use in a federally-funded study on military base security. The defendant contended that the policy could only be accessed and viewed by clicking on a seperate stand-alone link on the bottom of a JetBlue Web page and was not a term of the contract of carriage. The court rejected this argument, but did not discuss it in detail, because it found that plaintiffs werde unable to plead or prove any actual contract damages. 

  • JetBlue Airways Corp. Privacy Litigation, July 29, 2005, United States District Court, Eastern District of New York, Full text at: http://pub.bna.com/eclr/041587.pdf

    Court enforces Online Agreements, Including Privacy Policy Accessibale Via Hyperlink

 

 

 

Newsarchive

The Links & Law website is updated regularily, so  check back for updated information and resources about search engine and linking issues.

You are currently in the archive with older news. A complete list of the updates can be found here!
 

 
 

Masthead/Curriculum Vitae
Copyright © 2002-2008 Dr. Stephan Ott 

All Rights Reserved.

 

Google