"Our terms have changed": what to check before you agree?

A supplier notifies you of updated terms and attaches a PDF. What do you check in ten minutes before silently agreeing? A practical five-step approach.

You get an email from a supplier: "Our general terms and conditions have been updated as of 1 August. Please see the attachment." A PDF follows — twenty pages of legal language. What do you do? Be honest: most business owners click "ok, thanks for letting me know" and save the PDF somewhere. Reading it can wait. And "later" rarely comes.

That's human. But it's also exactly the moment when things can quietly change in ways that affect you later: a longer notice period, different liability terms, a price indexation clause, or a provision that disputes will now be settled in another country. Below is a practical approach that takes no more than ten minutes.

Why you should take that update seriously

General terms and conditions are not a formality. They determine what happens when things go wrong: an outage, a late invoice, a service that underdelivers. They tend to be most interesting to read precisely at that moment — and by then it's too late to negotiate.

When terms change, you usually do have a window to respond. Some suppliers give you an explicit right to terminate if you don't agree to the new version. That right lapses if you simply keep paying. Implied consent is real.

Step 1: check that the email actually comes from your supplier

Before you even open the attachment: is this really your supplier? Terms-update emails are a popular phishing scenario. They look businesslike and dull, and people quickly click "agree" just to get it out of the way.

• Does the sender address match exactly? Watch out for look-alike domains (rn instead of m, .co instead of .nl).
• Is the update also mentioned on their website or in their customer portal? Log in there separately — not via a link in the email.
• Not sure? Call the number on an old invoice, not the number in the email.

Step 2: ask for the previous version as well

This is the step many SMB owners skip — and it's the one that makes all the difference. Simply ask: "Could you also send me the previous version, or a summary of what's changed?"

Reputable suppliers will have this ready to hand. Larger suppliers often publish a changelog or highlight changes in red. If a supplier refuses or is evasive, that in itself tells you something.

Step 3: compare the two versions side by side

Manually reading two twenty-page PDFs is a full day's work that nobody actually does. Use a tool that automatically highlights the differences. Copy the text from both PDFs, paste them into a diff tool, and within seconds you'll see exactly what has been added, removed, or changed.

What you often find in practice:

• A price indexation clause bumped up from "CPI index" to "CPI index plus 3%".
• A notice period that quietly went from one month to three.
• A liability cap that has been lowered (in their favour).
• A new clause about sub-processors or data sharing.
• A change in jurisdiction: disputes will now be settled in Dublin or Delaware.

Not everything is cause for concern. Some changes are purely legal housekeeping or a response to new legislation. But you want to know before you agree.

Step 4: focus on five topics

You don't need to be a lawyer to scan the most important points. Look specifically at:

1. Price and indexation: how and when can prices increase?
2. Term and cancellation: how long are you locked in and how much notice do you need to give?
3. Liability: what do you get back if things go wrong?
4. Data and privacy: what do they do with your data and your customers' data? Are there new sub-processors?
5. Governing law: which country, which courts?

Everything else is usually less urgent. If any of these five points have changed, a brief follow-up question or internal discussion is warranted.

Step 5: record what you agreed to

Keep a copy of the version you agreed to, along with the date. Not just the confirmation email, but the PDF itself. Otherwise, in two years' time you'll be empty-handed when the supplier says: "But that was in version 4.2 that you accepted back then."

A simple folder structure — "Suppliers/[name]/terms/" with a date stamp in the filename — works perfectly. No complex contract management system required.

When to actually pick up the phone

For recurring costs above, say, €500 per month, for software that is critical to your operations, or for agreements involving customer data: bring someone in. An hour with a lawyer or advisor is cheaper than being locked into something you're unhappy with for three years.

In short

• Don't treat a terms update like spam.
• First verify that the email genuinely comes from your supplier.
• Request the previous version and compare automatically.
• Focus on five topics: price, term, liability, data, governing law.
• Archive the version you agreed to.

Want to quickly compare two versions without reading them line by line? Our diff tool shows the differences in colour — paste, check, done. Handy for terms, quotes, and contracts where you want to know what has actually changed.