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26 Mar 2001, UK

Dear Dr. Ecommerce

I have recently started an e-mail project for a local SME company. I was requested to design a general e-mail disclaimer to attach toall e-mails. What kind of law/act should we follow in UK or EU? What are the major issues about e-mail disclaimer?

Thanks for your advice.

Gavin

Dear Gavin:

I put your question to the E-commerce Genie at the Center for Law, Commerce, & Technology, University of Washington School of Law, who replies, beginning with her own disclaimer, in some depth:

"While we cannot tell you what action to take or otherwise give legal advice, we'd be more than happy to point you to resources on the Web that can assist you and possibly answer your questions. Should you require legal advice, please consult an attorney. While we cannot vouch for the accuracy of information posted on the Internet, we have located some web sites that may be of interest to you.

The E-Commerce Genie is not aware of any laws requiring the use of, or for formulating the content of, an e-mail disclaimer.

Disclaimers seem to have several common usages by organizations, with one purpose being to protect the confidentiality & security of the e-mail message, or to clearly state the existence or non-existence of an attorney-client or other professional relationship. This is often the case with legal communication with a lawyer/solicitor.

See http://lowchilders.com/disclaimer.htm for an example. And see http://www.campionrodolff.com/email.htm

Another common use is to disclaim an association or implied endorsement. Many times an organization might want to disclaim (or just condition) any acts, statements, or representations that someone associated with the organization might make. Often times institutions of higher education (possibly wishing to distance themselves from the copious and controversial opinions of student or staff) will adopt such disclaimers. See http://www.dundee.ac.uk/general/webcode.htm for an example.

A third type of disclaimer is one that disclaims liability. A cynic might suggest this is the underlying purpose of the other two types as well. As a rough explanation of the underlying theory, by giving notice that an organization expressly intends to disclaim liability, the issue is brought up and possibly, if not further addressed, it can be presumed that the parties agreed to such an allocation of liability (with respect to damages arising from one's use of a website or for example)

The types and kinds of liability are quite numerous, common examples being

1)damages from use of or reliance on information See
http://www.dparchitects.com/email_disclaimer.htm for an example.

2)damages to equipment involved in an act of viewing (this is especially the case with websites, although often not e-mail) See for example: http://www.iasplus.com/disclaim.htm

Some disclaimers are not really 'disclaimers' at all, but just a form
of adding additional or explanatory information. Often such
explanations remark that the e-mail might not be authentic, or that
attachments have been scanned for viruses, or, in the case of
government employees, e-mails may be public records. (see
http://www.southkingstownri.com/code/disclaimer.cfm for an example)

Also 'disclaimers' may warn of actions that _will_ be done with e-mails once they have been sent. See http://www.pacm.org/disclaimer.html for an example.

A (only partially serious) FAQ on e-mail disclaimers is available:
http://somis.ais.dundee.ac.uk/dataprotect/emaildis/dis.htm

And finally, this link offers a brief discussion, as well as a cite to an article that you may wish to pursue for a more exhaustive treatment of the subject. http://www.rroom.co.uk/wwwit1/messages/118.html

Examples of template disclaimers can be found at quite a few locations on the web, included below are a few.

http://www.unl.ac.uk/it/security/disclaimer.shtml

http://public.logica.com/~stepneys/joke/disclaim.htm (humorous)

http://www.epa.gov/webguide/create/disctemp.htm "

Good luck,

Dr. Ecommerce