TT Talk - Are your standard trading conditions reasonable?

The TT Club has frequently advised companies, particularly in the freight forwarding and logistics sectors of the industry,

The value of this was recently exemplified when the English courts made clear that two provisions in the UK forwarding association (BIFA) conditions can be regarded as reasonable and commercial.

In the case of Röhlig (UK) Ltd v Rock Unique Ltd (2011), a freight forwarder sued its customer for unpaid freight. The customer defended the claim and counterclaimed on the grounds that it had been overcharged and that it was off-setting freight against the forwarder's failure to meet an oral obligation to act as agent.

The BIFA trading conditions include both a provision that the customer pay to the company all sums due immediately and without set off, and also a nine month time bar clause. The customer's counterclaim was not served within nine months of the date on which the relevant liabilities arose and it, therefore, sought to rely on the UK Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977, arguing that both clauses were unreasonable and therefore unenforceable.

The English

The judge was apparently influenced by the fact that the customer was a commercially experienced company which understood its obligations under these conditions.

The Court of Appeal also upheld the time bar provision, as being framed in clear and broad terms. The judge referred with approval to the 2003 case Granville Oil & Chemicals v Davis Turner in which it was

In many instances, a local forwarding association will have standard trading conditions that should similarly be upheld in court. The TT Club also has drafted model conditions that are suitable and available to its Members via the 'My TT Club' section on the TT Club website or their usual contact.