Does Contract Disclosure Matter?

Abstract

Disclosure has long been the preferred regulatory approach to prevent one-sided standard-form contract terms, but its efficacy is unclear. For disclosure to be effective, it must increase readership of contracts and, conditional on reading, affect decisions. I use clickstream data on software shoppers to test these two conditions in the online context. I find that the prominence of disclosure of a software license agreement has little effect on readership. Moreover, those who read the license are equally likely to purchase the product regardless of its one-sidedness. Mandatory online disclosure regimes thus seem unlikely to impose competitive pressure on sellers.

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