Hi,
I have been working on a project for a client which builds a website similar to eBay in a loose sense, and am a little concerned at ‘holes’ in the clients business-model and plan. The job was interesting though and so I went ahead. My concern is specifically with regard to possible come-back / legal action from would be customers after they have used his businesses ‘service’ (designed for individuals and business people alike).
The project is nearly complete, and in addition to the usual ‘Site approval’ form I use, I would like to add in an extra document with regards to liabilities, indemnity etc, something to the effect of;‘we build this to your specification and now that its complete, you indemnify us and agree that we have nothing to do with it, the users or any possible claim/legal action that may arise from your customers using it in future’ - though obviously not worded like that.
So, question 1: Is it okay for me to put something together like that? (yes obviously have it checked over by a lawyer etc) but I mean in terms of it being legally acceptable? Am I within my rights to propose such a thing and request indemnity from any issues that may arise? After all, I just build what he wanted. What he does with it and how he promotes/gets people to use it and if people have a problem with that business or service, is nothing to do with me, right?
Secondly, it uses Stripe for payment integration and PayPal too… but I have come across something called the PCI-DSS regulations (http://www.theukcardsassociation.org.uk/security/PCIDSS_checklist.asp) and there is a whole host of things the website owner/business must adhere to in order to comply.
So question 2: Is it okay for me to say; ‘here are some links to information you must abide by, re compliance to stay legal’ (and again, would refute and refuse any liability or involvement with that side of things to cover myself post project completion), again obviously not in those exact words.
The project works well and its a nifty little site. Im just concerned if the clients customers are dissatisfied that they may lodge legal action against his service and I don’t want any come back.
To give an example (which might help shed some light); You use an introductory service website such as for finding tradesmen, proceed to have the sourced tradesman carry out some work but hit problems with that tradesman. And so since the website is where you found and chose them, you take legal action for compensation against the website.
Thats a similar-ish example of what I’m talking about, and just wondered what the communities advice would be on this sort of thing?
Personally, I think of those general issues as the liability of the site owner, but I guess it can’t hurt to have a contract in place from the beginning to cover yourself. It might be worth getting a lawyer to draft up a contract you can use each time, rather than do anything specifically for this site. 2c