What are the general terms and conditions for companies that sell training and courses? Function and legal status

What are general terms and conditions for companies that sell training programs and courses? They are the fixed rules that you, as a training provider or course provider, declare applicable to all registrations in advance: how someone registers, when and at what cost they may cancel or reschedule, the cooling-off period a consumer has, when payment is due, who owns the teaching materials, what you are and are not liable for, and what happens in the event of a no-show. Legally, they are a set of standard clauses (Art. 6:231 et seq. of the Dutch Civil Code) that become part of the agreement as soon as they have been correctly handed over and accepted.

The short answer

• Definition: standard terms that you apply to every registration, so that you do not have to renegotiate for each participant.
• Function: cover risks related to cancellation, rescheduling, payment, course materials, and liability.
• Legal status: valid as soon as they are handed over before or at the conclusion of the agreement (duty to provide information, Art. 6:233/6:234 BW).
• Consumer: for online or telephone registration, a statutory cooling-off period of 14 days applies; you may not deviate from this.
• Limit: unreasonably burdensome clauses can be annulled — for consumers, the black and grey lists apply.

What exactly are the general terms and conditions for companies that sell training and courses?

General terms and conditions are stipulations drafted to be used in a series of agreements, without specifying the core of the agreement itself (which course, which price). For a training provider, this means: you properly regulate how registration, cancellation, payment, and liability work once, and declare that package applicable to every booking. The participant accepts them upon registration — via an online checkbox, a signature, or because they were clearly included in the quotation.

So they don't arrange what you sell, but under what conditions. That is exactly what you need time and again for standalone courses, multi-day programs, and in-company training.

Why a trainer cannot do without them

A training program or course has its own risks that general terms and conditions must cover:

• Cancellation and rescheduling. Participants cancel, often just before the start. Without a tiered pricing system (for example, 100% for cancellations within a week), you bear the cost of the reserved room and instructor yourself.
• No-show. Someone fails to show up without cancelling. Your terms and conditions determine whether the full course fee remains payable in that case.
• Payment. Payment term, payment in advance, and consequences of late payment (interest, collection costs).
• Course materials. Readers, slides, and online modules are your intellectual property; terms prohibit resale and copying.
• Liability. You limit liability for, for example, cancelled class days or incorrect course content to the course fee.

The legal status: when do they apply?

General terms and conditions are not law, but a contract. They only bind the participant if you comply with the duty to inform: he must have had a reasonable opportunity to read them before or at the time of concluding the agreement (Art. 6:233 sub b and 6:234 BW). In practice:

• Online registration: make the terms and conditions downloadable or readable before completion, with an active check mark.
• Quotation or email: send the terms and conditions as an attachment, do not merely refer to them.
• On site: hand over before signing.

If you merely refer to terms and conditions “on the website” without actually offering them, you risk a participant destroying them and nothing remaining.

Consumer versus business participant

It matters who registers. Stricter rules apply to consumers (private individuals):

• Cooling-off period: for distance registration (online, by telephone), the consumer has a 14-day right of withdrawal. If he wishes to start the course within that period, he must explicitly agree to this, and you may charge a proportional part.
• Black and grey list: certain clauses are (presumably) unreasonably burdensome and therefore voidable, such as an overly broad exclusion of liability.

With a business participant (an employer enrolling employees), you have more contractual freedom, but the standard remains that a clause must not be unreasonable.

Brief practical example

A training agency offers a two-day leadership course. A participant cancels three days before the start. The terms and conditions state: 100% is due for cancellation within seven days; for rescheduling to a later date, the course is free of charge on a one-off basis. Because the terms and conditions were accepted with a checkmark during online registration and were offered as downloadable content, the agency is in a strong position: the participant chooses to reschedule rather than pay the full bill. Without a clear tiered pricing structure, this would have become a dispute.

Honest recommendation

If you work primarily in a business context (in-company, other companies) with clear cancellation and payment procedures and a single course format, a good standard set will suffice — a lawyer is not strictly necessary in that case. However, as soon as you sell to consumers (open enrollment, private individuals), work with online payments, or offer your own teaching materials and certification, things become more complex: cooling-off periods, liability, and intellectual property must be correct. In that case, have the terms and conditions legally reviewed once to ensure that a clause cannot be deemed voidable when you need it.

Want to know more or arrange it immediately? View the general terms and conditions for training providers and course providers, read how to draft these terms yourself or what it costs to have them drafted.

Frequently Asked Questions