Loving this “joke” clause inserted into the T&Cs of a wifi firm in the UK.
Having failed to read the small print of the terms and conditions of their contract, it seems that 22,000 people are “legally bound to 1000 hours of community service, including, but not limited to, cleaning toilets at festivals, scraping chewing gum off the streets and ‘manually relieving sewer blockages’”.
Back in July, The Guardian newspaper covered this story of the company Purple which operates wifi hotspots. The clause was added for two weeks “to illustrate the lack of consumer awareness of what they are signing up to when they access free wifi”.
The article goes on to talk about the “Herod clause” inserted by a cybersecurity firm in hotspot T&Cs – anyone could use their service “in exchange for their firstborn child”. 🙂 Six people signed up for that.
From Words to Deeds: translation & the law 
Shame on companies who produce such long and complicated T&Cs that consumers simply tick the “read and agree” box without even a glance. If the T&Cs were written in clear terms in just one or two lines, (or at t=lease their main thrust” more people would read. Who has an hour to go through 10 pages of small print? These two companies have highlighted something that is a worry, but inserting spoof terms isn’t the answer.
Good point Lucy.