Contract of adhesion

A take-it-or-leave-it contract with no room to negotiate.

A contract of adhesion is offered on a take-it-or-leave-it basis by the party with all the bargaining power. Every consumer terms-of-service agreement is one.

Courts scrutinise them more closely than negotiated contracts, because the consumer had no meaningful chance to object to any single term.

Related terms

• Class action - One lawsuit brought on behalf of everyone harmed the same way.
• Class representative - The named person who stands in for the whole class.
• Class certification - The court ruling that lets one case speak for everyone.
• Arbitration clause - Contract language sending disputes to a private forum instead of court.
• Class-action waiver - A term saying you may only bring a claim for yourself, never as a group.
• Unconscionability - A contract term so one-sided a court refuses to enforce it.
• Assent - Whether you actually agreed, and how the company proved it.
• Negative option billing - You are charged unless you act to stop it.