It is tough to differentiate between an invitation to treat and an offer as it depends on the intention of the party making an invitation to treat which is shown in Pharmaceutical Society of GB v Boots Cash Chemists Ltd [1932] 1 QB 401, where the defendants changed the format of their shop from a counter service to self-service. The Queen’s Bench and the Court of Appeal rejected this argument. The offer originated from the customer as soon as the item was put in the basket. The defendants remained free to accept or reject the offer. If they did accept, then this took place at the cash desk in the presence of a registered pharmacist, therefore there was no breach of the Act. The display of goods on the supermarket’s shelves was merely an invitation to customers to make offers to buy.
Parties can be invited through advertisements such as magazines or newspapers- Partridge v Crittenden [1968] 1 WLR 1204 QB. This is the famous case in which the plaintiff had put an advertisement in a newspaper for hens. The plaintiff was charged with illegally offering for sale a wild life bird conflicting the Protection of Birds Act 1954. It was held that the advertisement was an invitation to treat rather than an offer for sale,[1]. As a result of this the plaintiff was not guilty of the offence. The principle from Boots cash chemists was also used in Fisher v Bell [1961] 1 QB 394 where a shopkeeper displayed a knife in his window and under the Offensive Weapons Act 1959, it was illegal to offer for sale offensive weapons. The Court of Appeal held that the display of the knife in the window was an invitation to treat rather than an offer for sale therefore no offence was committed.
One type of offer is- Bilateral offer. This is an agreement by an exchange of promises between two parties- Thornton v Shoe Lane parking Ltd [1971] 2 QB 16. The plaintiff went to park his car in the defendant’s automatic car park. A notice was visible at the entrance stating the charges and a sign-‘cars parked at own risk’. Plaintiff took a ticket from the machine. The ticket stated the time of arrival and small print that it was ‘issued subjects to conditions displayed on the premises’ It was held the ticket came out to late since contract was concluded when the motorist drove up to the machine. Also an automatic ticket machine was an offer, rather than an .[2]
A unilateral offer is an offer open to the world at large. In the famous case of Carlil v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co. Ltd [1893] 1 QB, the defendants sold a smoke ball and put an advertisement in the newspaper claiming they would play £100 to anyone who contracted influenza after using the smoke ball for a specified period. The plaintiff contracted influenza after having purchased and used as directed and claimed the reward. The defendants argued that it was impossible to contract to the whole world, nevertheless this was rejected by the Court of Appeal. The court had identified that for an advertisement to be viewed as an offer, it has to be very specific. In this case there were other implications, for example £1000 was placed in a bank account to show that it was serious, this highlighted the validity of the offer. We see the more specific an advertisement the more likely it is to be seen as an offer.
Overall, It is extremely important to distinguish the differences between invitation to treat and offer, if the differences are not recognized the whole meaning and purpose could lead in to a different understanding which is incorrect.
Word Count- 1,014
Bibliography
- Elizabeth A. Martin, Jonathan Law- (2009) The Oxford dictionary of Law- Oxford University Press
-
, (2007)- The law of contract
- Richard stone- seventh edition- Contract law
- Jill Poole- Case book on contract law- seventh edition
- Chris Turner- Contract Law
