Opinion ID: 4579147
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: analysis

Text: As an issue of first impression in our circuit, we are asked whether a single website visit four years after assent to a contract containing a change-of-terms provision is enough to bind the parties to terms in the then-current version of the contract of which the visitor is unaware. We answer in the negative. First, by way of background: Contracts formed on the Internet come primarily in two flavors: “clickwrap” (or “click-through”) agreements, in which website users are required to click on an “I agree” box after being presented with a list of terms and conditions of use; and “browsewrap” agreements, where a website’s terms and conditions of use are generally posted on the website via a hyperlink at the bottom of the screen. 8 STOVER V. EXPERIAN HOLDINGS Nguyen v. Barnes & Noble Inc., 763 F.3d 1171, 1175–76 (9th Cir. 2014). The contract at issue in this case is a hybrid: in 2014, Stover assented to a clickwrap agreement; in 2018, the new terms allegedly altered the 2014 contract as a browsewrap agreement. In Douglas v. United States District Court for the Central District of California, we held that changed terms were unenforceable due to lack of notice: even if the plaintiff had visited the website where the new contract was posted, “he would have had no reason to look at the contract posted there,” because “[p]arties to a contract have no obligation to check the terms on a periodic basis to learn whether they have been changed by the other side.” 495 F.3d 1062, 1066