Almost every website has terms that govern a user’s experience and the site owner’s responsibility for the operations and activities of the site. The enforceability of such terms and the limitations of a user “clicking through” was recently addressed by the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Sgouros v TransUnion Corp.

Gary Sgouros filed a federal lawsuit against TransUnion over his purchase of a credit report package at TransUnion’s website. TransUnion filed a motion to dismiss based on an arbitration clause contained in its online Service Agreement. To complete the purchase, Sgouros was not required to scroll through or click a button agreeing to the terms of the Service Agreement, although he had to click through at least two other buttons on the site.

The trial court denied the motion. On appeal, the 7th Circuit held that TransUnion’s website “did not contain any requirement that Sgouros agree to abide by any terms and conditions, not did not warn the user that by completing a purchase he would be bound by the terms.”

Read Kathy Ossian’s recent article on the case in E-Commerce Law Reports available here. Contact us at Ossian Law P.C. regarding any information technology law matter.