Website Terms & Conditions · South Africa

Your website has legal duties. Meet them properly.

Every South African business website carries obligations under the law: the information it must display, the consumer rights it can't sign away, the personal data it must protect. Proper website terms and conditions do that job. Ours are drafted to ECTA, the CPA and POPIA: brochure site or online store, at a fixed fee.

Contact UsWhy You Need Them
  • Fixed Fee
  • Price on Request
  • Attorney-Reviewed
  • Ready to Publish

Why your website legally needs terms

This isn't a nice-to-have. South African law places real, enforceable duties on the operator of a commercial website, and generic copied terms usually miss them.

ECTA s43

Mandatory disclosures

The law requires a commercial site to display specific information about who runs it. Missing it lets an online customer cancel within 14 days.

CPA

Consumer rights you can't exclude

The Consumer Protection Act voids unfair terms and over-broad liability exclusions: copied "we're not liable for anything" clauses are worse than useless.

POPIA

Personal data duties

If your site collects any personal information, you must handle it lawfully and link a proper privacy policy: the terms tie this together.

ECTA s44

Cooling-off rights

Sell online and your customers get statutory cooling-off and return rights. Your terms must state them accurately: you cannot quietly reduce them.

The copied-terms trap:

pasting another company's terms, or a foreign template, is the most common and most dangerous shortcut. Foreign terms miss the ECTA disclosures entirely, over-exclude liability in ways the CPA makes void, and misstate South African cooling-off rights. A non-compliant term isn't just unenforceable; some are statutory contraventions in their own right.

Brochure site or online store? We build the right one.

The terms a shopfront-website needs are not the terms an online store needs. Our intake asks one question and includes the right module.

EVERY WEBSITE

Terms of Use (core)

For any business website: informational, brochure, lead-generation or portfolio:

  • Acceptance & changes to terms
  • ECTA section 43 statutory disclosures
  • Acceptable-use rules
  • Intellectual property protection
  • Third-party links, disclaimers
  • CPA-safe liability limitation
  • Privacy / POPIA linkage

ONLINE STORES

+ E-commerce module

Everything in the core, plus the clauses a site that sells online must have:

  • Products, pricing & when the contract forms
  • Payment & payment-provider terms
  • Delivery, risk & passing of ownership
  • ECTA 7-day cooling-off, stated correctly
  • CPA returns, refunds & defective goods
  • Consumer complaints & dispute referral

What's in your lawvero website terms

A complete, compliant document tailored to your site, not a generic paste-in.

  • Acceptance & amendment of terms
  • ECTA section 43 disclosure block
  • Acceptable-use & prohibited conduct
  • Accounts & registration (if applicable)
  • Intellectual property & content licence
  • Third-party links
  • Disclaimers ("as is", no professional advice)
  • CPA-compliant liability limitation
  • Products, prices & order formation*
  • Payment terms*
  • Delivery, risk & ownership*
  • Cooling-off, returns & refunds*
  • Consumer complaints & ADR*
  • POPIA / privacy policy linkage
  • Governing law & electronic conclusion
  • Severability & entire agreement

* Included in the e-commerce module, for sites that sell online.

Website terms are half the pair

Your website almost certainly also needs a POPIA privacy policy and a cookie notice, a separate document that your terms link to. We can prepare both together so your site is compliant end to end. Ask about the website compliance bundle.

Website terms questions, answered straight

Does my website legally need terms and conditions?

If it's a commercial website, effectively yes. ECTA requires certain information to be displayed on any site that markets goods or services, and if you sell online you must state statutory cooling-off and consumer rights. Even a brochure site benefits from acceptable-use rules, IP protection and a proper liability position. Trading without them leaves gaps a customer or competitor can exploit.

Can't I just copy another website's terms?

It's the most common mistake and a genuinely risky one. Copied terms, especially foreign ones, miss the mandatory ECTA disclosures, over-exclude liability in ways the Consumer Protection Act makes void, and misstate South African cooling-off periods. You also copy their business, their products and sometimes their company name by accident. Compliant terms have to fit your site and South African law.

What's the difference between website terms and a privacy policy?

They're two separate documents. Website terms govern how people may use your site and (if you sell) how the sale works. A privacy policy explains how you collect and process personal information under POPIA. Your terms link to your privacy policy; they don't replace it. Most sites need both, we can prepare them together.

What is the ECTA section 43 disclosure?

Section 43 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act lists specific information a commercial website must make available: the operator's full name, registration number, physical address, contact details and more. If a site selling online omits it, the consumer may cancel the transaction within 14 days without penalty. Our terms include a complete disclosure block.

Do I need the e-commerce clauses if I only take enquiries, not payments?

No. If customers can't buy and pay on your site, you need the core terms of use, not the e-commerce module, no cooling-off, delivery or payment clauses. The moment you add a checkout, you need the module. Our intake works this out with you.

How do cooling-off rights work for online sales?

Two separate rights can apply. Under ECTA section 44, a consumer who orders electronically may cancel within seven days of delivery, with limited exceptions. Under the Consumer Protection Act, further rights apply, including returning unsafe or defective goods within six months. These are statutory minimums; your terms must state them and cannot reduce them.

Important: lawvero (Pty) Ltd provides document preparation services and does not provide legal advice. Website terms are prepared from your instructions and reviewed before delivery. This page is general information current as at July 2026. Key legislation: Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002; Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008; Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013. © lawvero (Pty) Ltd 2026 · law, verified.

Make your website compliant.

Tell us about your site, who runs it, whether you sell online, and we'll prepare terms that fit it and South African law, at a fixed fee, ready to publish.

Contact Us