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For a contract to be binding, you need consideration[1] from both parties. A contract where you give me something for nothing is not binding, we both need to be
by pdpi 9y ago
For a contract to be binding, you need consideration[1] from both parties. A contract where you give me something for nothing is not binding, we both need to be giving each other _something_. That something need not be money: A contract saying that you agree to give me your house if I give you my car would qualify. Google and Facebook extract enough value from targeting ads based on the personal information we agree to give them access to that access to said information is enough to qualify as consideration. I'd argue that, even if WhatsApp doesn't have a monetisation strategy that leverages said information, it's credible enough that it would qualify as consideration.
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consideration https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consideration
- andrewaylett 9y agoThat still depends on the jurisdiction: Scotland, for example, does allow for contracts without consideration: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scots_contract_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scots_contract_law
- Tomte 9y agoSame in Germany: you can contract to gift something. Of course, German contract law is very strange and alien to every other legal tradition (except Japan, I think, and that‘s only because they modeled their civil law on ours).
- robertocatini 9y agoAs the page you linked explains, in Civil Law the consideration is not required.
- SkyPuncher 9y agoI worked as a developer in the promotion and giveaway industry. Consideration was always in interesting discussion by our company's general counsel when going through training. On thing that stuck out to me was the company would always review entry criteria if it may any requirement beyond what would be commonly available to the lowest ranking member of society. This was typically considered to be a computer with internet access as it was likely to be available at a public library. While mail has become a more accepted means of non-consideration entry, I believe there was a time where it was considered consideration. Counsel argued that mail-in entries required the submitter to own or purchase a stamp, a postcard, a writing device, and potentially an envelope for the postcard. An "app only" contest was given extra scrutiny because it required the user to own some sort of smartphone or mobile digital device. ---- While, that was contests and promotions (in which case, they needed to avoid running an illegal lottery), I imagine a similar argument could be made for WhatsApp. WhatsApp is only available if you own a smartphone capable of downloading the app.
- bokstavkjeks 9y agoIANAL, but only consideration is a common law thing, and is not required in the majority of EU countries, provided that I recall correctly.