The “Force Majeure” provision, a Latin term roughly meaning an “Act of God” is commonly found in most services agreements. But should it be included in your cloud services contract?
This nugget is a common clause in contracts that essentially frees both parties from liability or obligation when an extraordinary event or circumstance beyond the control of the parties, such as a war, strike, riot, crime, or an event described by the legal term “act of God” (such as hurricane, flooding, earthquake, volcanic eruption, etc.), prevents one or both parties from fulfilling their obligations under the contract.
Having a landscaper or electrician be excused from performing his services due to a hurricane is reasonable, and not an objectionable use of a force majeure clause in a contract with one of these types of service providers. Many cloud service providers would also want you to believe that it’s reasonable for them too, along with their uptime service level guarantees. Should you?