You start a webshop. You have a sleek website, a professional logo, and great products ready to ship. But then you hit a snag: the general terms and conditions. You look at a competitor’s site, copy their text, paste it into your own, and change the company name. Simple, free, and finished. Right?
Unfortunately, this is a dangerous misconception. While copying terms and conditions (algemene voorwaarden) from the internet might seem like a smart shortcut, it can land you in significant legal and financial trouble.
From copyright infringement claims to invalid contracts that leave you exposed, the risks are far greater than the few hundred euros you might save. In this guide, we explain exactly why this practice is so risky, the specific legal consequences you can expect under Dutch law, and how to arrange your legal documentation correctly.
What Are General Terms and Conditions?
Before understanding the risks, it is essential to define what these documents actually are. Under the Dutch Civil Code (Article 6:231 BW), general terms and conditions are standard provisions intended to be used in multiple agreements. They are the “small print” that governs the relationship between you and your customers.
For a business owner, these terms regulate crucial aspects of trade, such as delivery times, return policies, payment terms, liability limits, and complaint procedures. Without these conditions, or with poorly drafted ones, you stand legally weak in the event of a dispute.
Entrepreneurs need them for four primary reasons:
- Protection against liability: They limit your financial exposure if things go wrong.
- Clarity for customers: They set expectations regarding shipping, warranties, and returns.
- Legal backing: They provide a framework for resolving disputes without immediately going to court.
- Professional appearance: They signal that you are a legitimate business that takes its obligations seriously.
Why Entrepreneurs Copy Terms and Conditions
We understand the temptation to copy. Starting a business is expensive, and legal fees can feel like a burden you would rather avoid. The reasons entrepreneurs opt for the “copy-paste” method are often pragmatic:
- Saving costs: Legal advice is perceived as expensive, while copying is free.
- Saving time: Why reinvent the wheel when a competitor has already done the work?
- Ignorance: Many business owners genuinely do not know that copying text is often illegal.
- Abundance of examples: With millions of terms available online, it feels like public domain information.
These reasons are understandable, but they are built on a false economy. The risks you take by copying—risks we will detail below—far outweigh the initial saving.
5 Legal Risks of Copying General Terms and Conditions
Copying general terms and conditions from the internet is not a victimless shortcut; it is a business gamble that can lead to serious legal and financial problems. These are the five biggest risks you run.
1. Copyright Infringement: Legal Claims and Fines
Many entrepreneurs assume that legal texts are purely functional and therefore free to use. This is incorrect. General terms and conditions can be protected by copyright if they are sufficiently original and bear the personal stamp of the maker (Dutch Copyright Act, Article 1).
Consider this practical scenario: A specialized law firm has spent twenty hours drafting unique, well-thought-out terms for a specific webshop. They have structured the clauses creatively and used specific phrasing to offer maximum protection. If you copy these terms, you are infringing on their copyright.
The consequences of such infringement are severe. You may face:
- Civil claims: You can be sued for damages, which often include the license fee you should have paid, plus additional punitive damages.
- ** prohibitions:** A judge can issue an injunction forcing you to stop using the text immediately.
- Legal costs: In intellectual property cases, the loser often pays the full legal costs of the winner, which can run into thousands of euros.
- Criminal sanctions: In extreme cases of large-scale infringement (Article 31a Auteurswet), criminal penalties can apply.
Case law (such as ECLI:NL:RBMNE:2022:1054) confirms that copying business texts is not taken lightly by the courts. In short: copying can end up costing you significantly more than having terms drawn up professionally in the first place.
2. Unlawful Act (Tort): Liability Beyond Copyright
Even if a specific set of terms and conditions does not meet the threshold for copyright protection, copying them can still be considered an unlawful act (onrechtmatige daad) under Article 6:162 of the Dutch Civil Code.
This often occurs when the copying leads to confusion in the market. If you copy terms that are so specific to a competitor that customers might believe they are dealing with the original company, you are creating market confusion. This is a form of unfair competition.
Furthermore, courts may view it as “parasitic behaviour”—profiting from the effort and investment of another without contributing anything yourself. If your copied terms contain errors that mislead consumers, you could also be liable for misleading trade practices. Recent jurisprudence (ECLI:NL:RBROT:2023:5520) highlights that creating confusion or profiting from another’s work can lead to liability, regardless of copyright status.
3. Invalidity: Your Conditions May Not Be Binding
This is a critical risk that many entrepreneurs overlook. Even if you don’t get sued for copyright infringement, copied terms might be completely useless when you need them most.
The Information Duty
Under Dutch law (Article 6:233 and 6:234 BW), you must give customers a reasonable opportunity to read your terms before or during the conclusion of the contract. If you copy terms but fail to implement the correct technical process on your website (e.g., a mandatory checkbox or a download link in the confirmation email), the terms are voidable. A customer can simply say, “I never had a chance to read these,” and the judge will set them aside.
Unreasonably Onerous Clauses
Copied terms often contain clauses that do not fit your specific business model. A clause that is reasonable for a large multinational might be deemed “unreasonably onerous” (and thus voidable) for a small local service provider. For example, if you copy a clause stating “customer pays all transport costs for returns” while you advertise free returns elsewhere, that clause can be annulled.
If your terms are declared invalid, you fall back on general statutory law, which is almost always less favourable to the entrepreneur than specific terms and conditions.
4. Practical Problems: Conditions That Do Not Fit
When you copy and paste, you inherit another business’s rules, which rarely align perfectly with your own. This leads to a chaotic operational reality.
Common examples of mismatched terms include:
- Reference to a “physical store” or “counter service” when you operate strictly as a webshop.
- Stating a return period of 14 days in the terms, while your marketing promises 30 days.
- Incorrect references to company names, Chamber of Commerce (KvK) numbers, or dispute committees you aren’t a member of.
- Clauses regarding services (e.g., installation or maintenance) that you do not offer.
The consequence is confusion. When a dispute arises, neither you nor the customer knows which rule applies. This loss of clarity weakens your position in any conflict and can even be seen as misleading information, inviting complaints to consumer authorities. Terms and conditions must be tailored; they are not a “one-size-fits-all” solution.
5. Reputational Damage and Lack of Professionalism
Customers and business partners are sharper than you might think. If they spot that your General Terms and Conditions contain the name of a competitor, or refer to products you don’t sell, you lose credibility instantly.
In a B2B context, this can be fatal to a deal. A potential partner who sees you have cut corners on legal compliance will wonder where else you are cutting corners. Are your data security measures also copied? Is your financial stability real?
In the age of online reviews, it only takes one customer pointing out that your terms are “stolen” or “full of mistakes” to damage your brand image. Trust takes years to build, but only seconds to destroy with unprofessional legal documentation.
When Are General Terms and Conditions Copyright Protected?
It is important to nuance the story: not every sentence in a set of terms and conditions is protected.
For copyright to apply, the work must be original and bear the “personal stamp” of the maker. Standard phrases like “Complaints must be submitted within 14 days” are too generic to be protected. However, the unique selection, arrangement, structure, and specific wording of the document as a whole often are protected (ECLI:NL:HR:2013:BY1529).
If a specialized lawyer has spent time drafting specific clauses tailored to a unique business model, that document is protected property.
The Grey Area
Model terms provided by trade associations are sometimes not protected because they are intended for general use. However, copying them is still risky because:
- You do not know for certain if they are free of copyright.
- Unlawful act claims are still possible.
- They likely won’t fit your specific business needs without adaptation.
Advice: Always assume that professionally drafted terms are protected. The risk of being wrong is simply too high.
How to Draw Up Valid General Terms and Conditions
Having read the warnings, you may be wondering how to proceed correctly. You have three viable options that offer security without the risks of copying.
Option 1: Instruct a Legal Advisor (Best Option)
For a fee typically ranging between €2,000 and €5,000, a lawyer can draft terms that are:
- Perfectly aligned with your specific business processes.
- Legally watertight and compliant with the latest Dutch and EU laws.
- Designed to protect you specifically against the risks relevant to your sector.
This is the best choice for companies with turnover above €50,000, B2B service providers, or webshops selling complex or high-liability products.
Option 2: Industry Terms (With Adaptation)
If you are a member of a trade association (like Thuiswinkel.org in the Netherlands), you may be entitled to use their model terms. These are generally legally sound. However, you must check if you are allowed to use them (often membership is required) and you should still have a legal professional review them to ensure they cover your specific operational quirks.
What NEVER to do:
- ❌ Copy blindly from the internet.
- ❌ Copy from a competitor.
- ❌ Ask ChatGPT to write them without a legal review (AI often hallucinates laws).
- ❌ Translate English terms into Dutch (or vice versa) without localization.
Checklist: Are Your General Terms and Conditions Valid?
Use this checklist to assess the health of your current legal documentation.
1. Provenance
- Are the terms specifically drafted for my company?
- Can I confirm they were not copied from a competitor?
- Were they drawn up by a lawyer or a reputable legal service?
2. Company Details
- Is my company name correct?
- Is the Chamber of Commerce (KvK) number accurate?
- Are the contact details current?
3. Duty of Information
- Are the terms clearly findable on my website?
- Do I include a link to them in order confirmations/invoices?
- Does the customer have to actively agree (checkbox) before purchasing?
4. Content Fit
- Do the return policies match my actual workflow?
- Are the delivery times realistic?
- Are the liability clauses reasonable and not overly extreme?
5. Legal Status
- Are they GDPR compliant?
- Have they been updated in the last 2 years?
If you checked “No” to any of these, or if you know your terms are copied, you need to take action immediately.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q: Can I copy general terms and conditions from a competitor?
A: No, this is not permitted. If the terms are copyright protected (which is often the case with professional texts), you are infringing on intellectual property rights. Even without copyright, it can be considered an unlawful act (onrechtmatige daad). You risk legal claims, fines, and reputational damage.
Q: What if I only copy a few sentences and write the rest myself?
A: Even partial copying can constitute infringement if you take the original/creative parts. Furthermore, mixing copied text with your own writing creates a high risk of inconsistency, contradiction, and legal invalidity. It is safer to use industry models as a base and adapt them legally.
Q: Can ChatGPT or AI write my general terms and conditions?
A: AI can provide a starting structure, but relying on it is dangerous. AI tools often make mistakes regarding specific Dutch legislation, use outdated rules, or generate generic text that does not protect your specific business interests. Always have AI-generated text reviewed by a lawyer.
Q: How much does it cost to have terms drawn up properly?
A: A lawyer typically charges between €2,000 and €5,000 depending on complexity. While this costs more than copying, it is significantly cheaper than the cost of a single legal dispute or copyright claim later on.
Q: What happens if I keep using copied terms?
A: You are sitting on a ticking time bomb. You face ongoing risks of copyright claims, your terms may be declared void in court (leaving you unprotected), and astute customers may lose trust in your professionalism.
Q: Can I translate foreign terms and conditions and use them?
A: This is highly risky. Copyright applies internationally. Furthermore, foreign terms are based on foreign laws which likely do not comply with mandatory Dutch consumer protection laws or the GDPR.
Conclusion
Copying general terms and conditions (algemene voorwaarden) from the internet might seem like a quick fix, but the risks are substantial. You expose your business to copyright claims, fines, invalid contracts during disputes, and significant reputational damage. The practical chaos of using terms that do not match your actual business operations can lead to customer dissatisfaction and lost revenue.
The investment in professionally drafted terms (€2,000–€5,000) is negligible compared to the potential costs of legal procedures and damage claims (€5,000–€35,000+). General terms and conditions are not a “nice to have”; they are a legal necessity that protects the future of your business.
Are you currently using copied terms?
Replace them as soon as possible. Every day you use them, you are at risk.
Do you want professional terms that fit your business perfectly?
Contact Law & More today. Our specialists will help you with tailor-made conditions that truly protect you.
Invest in certainty. Your business is worth it