Drafting General Terms and Conditions for Events

Event organizers work with tight schedules, expensive venues, numerous suppliers, and a client who expects flawless execution on a fixed date. It is precisely this combination that makes clear general terms and conditions indispensable. Without established ground rules, you will quickly find yourself bearing the cost of damages in the event of a cancelled trade show day, a cancelled speaker, or a storm rendering the festival grounds unusable. Good terms and conditions determine in advance who bears which risk, when payment is due, and what happens if the event cannot proceed.

General terms and conditions are the standard provisions that you declare applicable to all your assignments, so that you do not have to renegotiate cancellation, liability, and payment with every quotation. For the events industry, these provisions are particularly important because a large portion of the costs has already been incurred before the event takes place and because many factors lie beyond your control.

General terms and conditions do not apply automatically. Pursuant to Article 6:233 and Article 6:234 of the Dutch Civil Code, you must offer your counterparty a reasonable opportunity to review the terms and conditions before or at the time of concluding the agreement. This is referred to as making them available. If you fail to do so, the client may subsequently invalidate the provisions, precisely at the moment you wish to invoke your cancellation policy or limitation of liability.

In practice, it is insufficient to merely post the terms and conditions on your website or only mention them on the invoice. Explicitly refer to the terms and conditions in your quotation or order confirmation and send them along as an attachment, for example as a PDF. Preferably, have the client agree to the quotation including the terms and conditions, so that you can demonstrate that they have been provided. Also, clearly define in the terms and conditions what is meant by an assignment, an event, and a client.

For events, significant costs are incurred well before the execution: venue rental, catering guarantees, technical equipment, artists, and staff are often booked months in advance. A tiered cancellation policy is therefore the heart of your terms and conditions. It is customary for the percentage owed by the client to increase as the cancellation occurs closer to the event date, for example, from a portion of the contract sum a few months in advance to the full amount within the final weeks.

Require that cancellation be in writing and regulate separately what happens in the event of postponement to a new date. Distinguish between costs you have already irreversibly incurred with third parties and your own work. A sliding scale that aligns with the actual costs incurred and to be incurred holds up better than an arbitrarily high penalty amount, which can be mitigated by a judge.

No industry is as dependent on external factors as the events sector. Extreme weather, a revoked event permit, a cancelled artist, a power outage, or a national measure can make an event impossible at the last minute. A broad yet concrete force majeure clause is therefore essential. Explicitly specify the situations typical of your industry so that you can successfully invoke them.

Stipulate in the force majeure clause what the consequences are: the right to suspend performance, reschedule the event, or terminate the agreement, and how costs already incurred and deposits will be handled in that case. Bear in mind that force majeure does not automatically mean that all services already provided and costs incurred will be at your expense; stipulate that the client reimburses costs incurred up to the moment of force majeure.

Many things can go wrong at an event: injury to visitors, damage to the venue, a failed livestream, or consequential damage due to a product launch not taking place. You cannot completely exclude your liability, but you can limit it responsibly. A customary and sustainable approach is to limit liability to direct damage, excluding indirect damage and consequential damage such as lost revenue, and a maximum that aligns with the amount paid out by your liability insurance or the amount of the contract sum.

Please note that reliance on a limitation of liability may be overridden in accordance with standards of reasonableness and fairness in the event of intent or willful recklessness on the part of yourself or your supervisors. Additionally, stipulate that the client is responsible for the safety of the location, the conduct of their guests, the necessary permits, and music rights (such as Buma/Stemra), and indemnify yourself against third-party claims arising therefrom.

An event organizer is heavily dependent on third parties: caterers, security, technical suppliers, and artists. Stipulate in your terms and conditions that you are entitled to engage third parties and limit your liability for errors made by those suppliers. Also clarify who is responsible for applying for permits in a timely manner and complying with permit conditions, as the absence thereof can render an event impossible.

Furthermore, specify who holds the intellectual property rights to concepts, scripts, and designs you create, and under what conditions the client may use them. If desired, include a provision regarding video recording during the event for your own promotion. Finally, clear payment agreements belong in your terms and conditions: an upfront deposit is customary in this industry and protects you against the risk of incurring costs that are not reimbursed afterwards.

Filing your general terms and conditions with the Chamber of Commerce or the court is not mandatory, but it can be practical. It provides proof of the content of your terms and conditions at a specific point in time and enables third parties to request them. However, filing never replaces providing them: you remain obliged to actually give your client the opportunity to review the terms and conditions with every agreement. If you work with regularly returning clients, you can agree that the terms and conditions also apply to future assignments.

Standard terms and conditions found online rarely align with your specific working methods, cancellation scale, and the risks associated with your type of events. As a result, they risk failing in the event of a dispute, precisely when you need them most. MKB Juristen drafts your custom-made general terms and conditions for events—legally watertight and tailored to your industry—featuring a clear cancellation policy, a comprehensive force majeure clause, and responsible limitation of liability. Thanks to a fixed price upfront, you know exactly what you will pay, with no surprises afterwards. Contact us and ensure you are in a strong position should an event unexpectedly take a different turn.