Terms of service for an app on the web
What your terms need to cover for the web, including the clauses the platform requires you to carry.
What terms are for
Terms are the agreement between you and the person using the app. They matter on the day something goes wrong, which is the day nobody reads them for the first time. Short and specific beats long and borrowed.
On the web you are the seller, and that changes the terms
Selling directly puts consumer law on you rather than on a store: in most of Europe that means a fourteen day right to withdraw, a duty to confirm the order in writing, and prices shown with tax included. None of that applies to a store purchase, which is why a web version of an app usually needs different terms from the app.
- Who the seller is, with an address, not just a brand name.
- The withdrawal right and the exception for digital content supplied immediately with the buyer's agreement.
- How to cancel a subscription, in your own product, without writing to you.
- What happens to the account and the data when a subscription lapses.
What has to be in them
- Who is contracting: a person or a company, named, with an address.
- What the service is, and what it is not.
- How someone pays, what renews, and how they stop it.
- What you are liable for, capped in a way your local law actually permits.
- Which law governs the agreement and where a dispute goes.
- How someone ends the agreement, and what happens to their data when they do.
Keeping it true after launch
A legal page stops being true the moment the product moves past it, usually by adding a payment provider, an analytics SDK or a sign-in. No store re-checks your pages against your build, so the drift is yours to notice.
- Re-read it whenever you add a dependency that sees user data.
- Re-check what loads on the page after any change: the cookie notice and the policy have to agree.
- Keep the URL stable. Changing where a policy lives breaks every listing that points at it.
Common questions
Do I need my own EULA on iOS?
No. Apple's standard licence applies by default and is fine for most apps. If you use your own, it has to carry Apple's required clauses.
Can I cap my liability at zero?
Not in most consumer jurisdictions. A cap that the law does not permit is unenforceable, which means you end up with no cap at all rather than a low one.