Rules of Offer and Acceptance are applied to enforce an agreement by the law. This agreement is the first requisite of any contract of the business. In order to a contract come into being between parties, the offer is made by the offeror and the oferee accept that offer. In 21st century, there are rapid changes in business trend which create lots of new business model such as e-business and global business. The more business participates, the more requirements of Offer and Acceptance Rules to adapt to the change. In this essay, we are going to look at the Rules of Offer and Acceptance, how do they affect business contract and whether these rules make good business sense in 21st century or not.
Offer And Acceptance, How These Rules Affect Business:
Offer:
First of all, we need to know what offer is. Poole (2008, p42) suggested that offer is an “expression of willingness to contract” on the exact terms with no other negotiation, so that an obligatory contract can be formed with acceptance only. In addition, Keenan and Riches (2007) defined an offer is a proposal made by the offeror on the specific terms with a promise to be bound by that proposal if the acceptance of stated terms is made by oferee; an offer can be made expressly or impliedly. If an offer is truly made, the agreement is bound once offeree accept.
Moreover, offer is distinguished from invitation to treat such as offers to negotiate, offers to receive offers and offer to chaffer (Cheshire, Fifoot & Furmston, 2007). In this aspect, the display of goods for sale with a price attached in a shop window or shelf is an invitation for customers to make an offer to buy - Fisher v Bell (1960) and Pharmaceutical Society of GB v Boots Cash Chemists (Southern) ltd (153). In term of advertisement, price list, catalogues and brochures, Poole (2008) propose a general rule which is that they amount to invitation to treat; however he also indicated the exception which is that advertisement about a