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I wonder if companies can be held liable by customers and/or competitors if they break that promise. My (very brief, IANAL) intro to civil law in Switzerland c

by harha 6y ago

I wonder if companies can be held liable by customers and/or competitors if they break that promise. My (very brief, IANAL) intro to civil law in Switzerland covered an interesting detail in contracts: contracts (or parts) need to follow “good morals” to avoid being invalidated [0], an example of which would be that the contract shouldn’t bind the parties for perpetuity. So this part of the contract couldn’t be enforced by the other party (the customer), while the provider actively advertised it. I wouldn’t be surprised if this would be seen as bad advertising and would lead to potential compensation for customers and competitors, if they stop providing the service. [0]: https://www.admin.ch/opc/en/classified-compilation/19110009/index.html#a20 https://www.admin.ch/opc/en/classified-compilation/19110009/... Edit: added the English translation of the link.

Galanwe 6y ago
> I wonder if companies can be held liable by customers and/or competitors if they break that promise. Do we really care though? You can just scrap the company and do an other one. An other option is just to change the terms, display a pop-up to users saying "Hey, our terms changed, do you accept the new ones?". You can bet 99.999% will click yes and not read the new terms.
- harha 6y ago
  > You can just scrap the company and do an other one. In this case probably yes, that's what the limited liability is for in companies. Though if you have legal issues with the old company, some jurisdictions may not let you start another one (or at least be director). If it's Google (Photos) or HP (lifetime printing) making the promise and driving competitors out of the market, I think it's a valid claim. > An other option is just to change the terms I'm not sure if that's an option if your customer has signed up under "lifetime" terms. While these parts of the terms they've signed up for are void, they could claim that they've had damages (costs or missed opportunities) by this "immoral" offer.

by harha 6y ago

Galanwe 6y ago

> I wonder if companies can be held liable by customers and/or competitors if they break that promise. Do we really care though? You can just scrap the company and do an other one. An other option is just to change the terms, display a pop-up to users saying "Hey, our terms changed, do you accept the new ones?". You can bet 99.999% will click yes and not read the new terms.

harha 6y ago
> You can just scrap the company and do an other one. In this case probably yes, that's what the limited liability is for in companies. Though if you have legal issues with the old company, some jurisdictions may not let you start another one (or at least be director). If it's Google (Photos) or HP (lifetime printing) making the promise and driving competitors out of the market, I think it's a valid claim. > An other option is just to change the terms I'm not sure if that's an option if your customer has signed up under "lifetime" terms. While these parts of the terms they've signed up for are void, they could claim that they've had damages (costs or missed opportunities) by this "immoral" offer.