Authoritative guidelines for terms and conditions?

[moltar]

Do you know of any authoritative guidelines, studies, etc. for web-based businesses on how they should design their websites so as to ensure effective communication with consumers - and in particular, to ensure that consumers truly agree to terms and conditions of sale?

The context here is that the business argues that a mere link at the bottom of its webpage is sufficient to infer consumer consent to the terms and conditions contained in the linked document.

Anything that you think might be helpful would be appreciated!

[grandmf]

We have been told two different stories from visa/mastercard. Originally we were told that we have to have the customer agree to the terms before they could make the purchase. They told us that you could have a checkbox with a link to our terms and the customer could check the box to agree to them and proceed to the checkout. After losing a chargeback a few weeks ago (due to a customer changing his story 3 times and finally losing the 3 attempt at a chargeback, even though we won the first 2) they informed us that you have to have the customer physically see and scroll through the agreement. Then at the bottom of the page, have a 'agree' 'disagree'. Same way as when your installing some software and you have to scroll through the EULA to get the continue button to activate.

[moltar]

Thanks a bunch, grandmf! That is extremely helpful!

Anyone else?