Therefore, small businesses will bear a substantially larger risk than consumers or big businesses purchasing the same software. The ability to fully disclaim warranties and ship defective software affects every business and consumer. The construction firm discovered the error after the bid had been accepted. The niche and sole-source nature of much of the software market makes negotiating contracts difficult enough.
Vendors are less likely to negotiate on contract terms that are already part of the law.
The tendency to avoid negotiations is especially difficult for small businesses and consumers that lack the financial resources and standing to pursue their interests. Libraries and higher education will also suffer as their ability to negotiate terms and conditions will be significantly constrained. Very often, upgrades come with new license agreements. Were a company to come to an impasse about the terms of an operating system upgrade with the vendor, the company would have little or no ability to decline the new terms. To shift to a competing product, if one is available, would require sacrificing the company's human investment in training, all pieces of software that run on the original operating platform and much of the data created by the software.