Can a trader contract out of responsibility for liability for negligence?
Traders ability to limit their own liability is restricted by the Unfair Contract Term Act 1977 (applicable in England & Wales only) under which traders cannot exclude or limit liability for death or personal injury arising from negligence but can exclude or restrict their liability for other loss or damage arising from negligence providing the exclusion clause meets the test of reasonableness. This test is very difficult to summarise but the court will consider the circumstances that were known to the parties (or should have been known) when the contract was made and will pay particular attention to such issues as the relative bargaining strength of the parties, whether the customer received any special inducements and whether the customer knew or should reasonably have known about the restriction clause. It is the trader who has to prove that the clause was reasonable. THE CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT 1987 The aim of the Consumer Protection Act was to help to safeguard the consumer from p
