Emily Paisley, apprentice solicitor at Worthingtons Solicitors, looks at the tongue-in-cheek provisions of Amazon’s new terms and conditions.

There are plenty of Zombie Movies around –Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead,Shaun of the Dead to name but a few – but do you really need to update your business Terms & Conditions to include Terms of the Living Dead?

Amazon’s Web Services Arm clearly thought so when they inserted clause 57.10 into their AWS Service terms for the unveiling of their new games development engine on 9th February:

57.10 “Acceptable Use; Safety-Critical Systems. Your use of the Lumberyard Materials must comply with the AWS Acceptable Use Policy. The Lumberyard Materials are not intended for use with life-critical or safety-critical systems, such as use in operation of medical equipment, automated transportation systems, autonomous vehicles, aircraft or air traffic control, nuclear facilities, manned spacecraft, or military use in connection with live combat. However, this restriction will not apply in the event of the occurrence (certified by the United States Centers for Disease Control or successor body) of a widespread viral infection transmitted via bites or contact with bodily fluids that causes human corpses to reanimate and seek to consume living human flesh, blood, brain or nerve tissue and is likely to result in the fall of organized civilization”.

See: https://aws.amazon.com/service-terms/

While clearly tongue in cheek, it is nevertheless a reminder that you should take the time to review, or negotiate favourable Terms & Conditions before you enter into any contract.

Worthingtons regularly advise their business clients to implement and update Terms and Conditions, but doubt that we will be advising that a zombie apocalypse clause is strictly necessary. For more information, contact our experienced litigation department for further information.