Drafting General Terms and Conditions for a Beauty Salon

A beauty salon works with clients' skin, bodies, and appearance every day. This entails an increased risk: an allergic reaction to a product, a disappointing treatment result, or a client who fails to show up. General terms and conditions establish in advance the rights and obligations of both you and your client, ensuring that in the event of a conflict, you are not dependent on separate agreements or the client's reminder.

Moreover, for a beauty salon, skin expert, or nail studio, the clients are almost always consumers. This means that the law imposes strict requirements on what you may and may not include in your terms and conditions. Well-drafted terms and conditions protect you precisely because they remain within those legal limits; conditions that go too far can be annulled by a judge and offer no protection whatsoever.

General terms and conditions are only valid if the customer could reasonably have taken notice of them. Pursuant to Articles 6:233 and 6:234 of the Dutch Civil Code, you must provide your terms and conditions to the customer before or at the time of concluding the agreement. If you fail to do so, the customer may invalidate the relevant provisions, rendering them invalid.

In the practice of a beauty salon, this means that it is not sufficient to simply have the terms and conditions listed somewhere on your website. Actively refer to them during the booking process, include them in the confirmation email, or have the client check a box during the intake. If you use an online appointment system, ensure that the client can review and accept the terms and conditions before the appointment is finalized.

The most tangible financial risk for a beauty salon is the no-show: a client who fails to show up or cancels at the last minute, while the time slot cannot be filled again. Without clear terms and conditions, you are left empty-handed. With a clear cancellation policy, you can charge (part of) the treatment price.

Specify the timeframe within which cancellation is free of charge, the percentage you charge for late cancellations or no-shows, and the procedure by which the customer must cancel. Bear in mind that a cancellation clause must be reasonable towards consumers: a penalty that far exceeds the actual damages may be deemed unreasonably burdensome and be invalidated.

Treatments involving chemical products, peels, waxing, or equipment carry the risk of allergic reactions, irritation, or a result other than the client expected. In your terms and conditions, you limit your liability to the extent permitted by law and impose obligations on the client: providing accurate information regarding health, medication use, and allergies via an intake form, and following your aftercare advice.

A limitation of liability has limits. You cannot exclude liability for damage caused by intent or willful recklessness, and for consumers, an exclusion must not be unreasonably burdensome. A good clause, for example, excludes consequential damages and links liability to the amount paid out by your business liability insurance, rather than simply excluding all liability.

Because you deal almost exclusively with consumers, the additional protection rules from the Dutch Civil Code apply. Article 6:236 of the Civil Code contains the black list: clauses that are always unreasonably burdensome vis-à-vis a consumer and are therefore prohibited. Article 6:237 of the Civil Code contains the grey list: clauses that are presumed to be unreasonably burdensome, unless you can prove otherwise.

For a beauty salon, this is the difference between terms and conditions that hold up and those that fail in the event of a complaint or dispute. An overly broad exclusion of liability, an unreasonably high cancellation fee, or cutting off the customer's right to terminate the agreement may be in violation of these lists. Therefore, it is advisable to have the terms and conditions specifically reviewed for consumer use.

A beauty salon operates under specific regulations. Permanent make-up and tattoos require a permit from the Municipal Health Service (GGD), and you must follow the RIVM hygiene guidelines; laser treatments may fall under the Healthcare Quality, Complaints and Disputes Act (Wkkgz). Your terms and conditions must align seamlessly with these obligations so that they do not contradict each other.

In addition, you process sensitive data: skin conditions, medication use, and treatment history via the intake form. This partly constitutes health data, for which the GDPR imposes strict requirements. Refer to a separate privacy statement in your terms and conditions and carefully regulate the retention period and the purpose of data processing. Also include rules of conduct and hygiene for clients so that you can enforce a safe and professional working environment.

Filing your general terms and conditions with the Chamber of Commerce or the court is not legally required and does not automatically make your terms applicable. What counts legally is the provision of the terms: that the customer was able to review and accept the terms before or at the time of the appointment.

Filing can be practical as proof of the version and date, for example in the case of online bookings where handing over the document is more difficult to document. More important than filing is having a watertight process in place to demonstrate that the customer accepted the terms and conditions prior to the treatment.

Standard terms and conditions found online or industry examples rarely align perfectly with your salon, your treatments, and your risks. A liability clause that goes too far or a cancellation policy that does not comply with consumer regulations offers no protection at the decisive moment. This is precisely where customization pays off.

MKB Juristen drafts general terms and conditions that are fully tailored to your beauty salon, your types of treatments, and applicable consumer regulations, for a fixed price upfront. This way, you know exactly where you stand and have terms and conditions that will actually hold up in the event of a dispute.