Hacker News Reader

Comment by slackingoff2017 | Hacker News Reader

slackingoff2017

If he has the power to do such things then does it that is definitely HIS official policy going forward. Apparently company policy doesn't matter when you're the guy at the top, or at least that's what he's trying to tell us. Way to send a terrible message to your employees BTW.

If he doesn't like your site and has a bad day he's going to take you off the internet.

View on HN

If he doesn't like your site, he may not allow you to use his service, which is something the TOS already cover.

Over time, such capricious terminations could lead to the Board seeking action against the CEO, depending on the impact to the business.

I'm no lawyer, but I seem to recall that a contract that allows one side to unilaterally withdraw for unspecified reasons is not a real contract (the legal term is "illusory promise" or "illusory contract").

Cloudflare apparently has a legal team, so I have to assume they know whether their terms of service are actually an enforceable contract, but that provision sounds fishy to me.

> I seem to recall that a contract that allows one side to unilaterally withdraw for unspecified reasons is not a real contract

I certainly hope you're wrong. Because I've "unilaterally withdrawn from" (i. e. "canceled") literally hundreds of contracts, and I don't remember ever giving a reason.

Don't take my word for it: https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/illusory_promise .

If Cloudflare can cancel the contract at the CEO's whim without needing to prove that the customer has somehow violated some terms of use, then Cloudflare isn't "bound to perform" using Cornell's terminology.

In ordinary contracts that's true, but this case is different because it's more of a continuing contract

It is not a one time performance like washing a car or shoveling a driveway or buying grocheries. It is a continual term contract where each party agrees to continue going. In these cases, it would be legal to have a clause allowing either party to terminate the contract at any time. Certainly daily stormer was free to stop using cloud flare at any time. And similarly, cloudflare is free to terminate the stormer's account at any time provided they refund the cash. So the contract is not really illusory because both parties still have the obligation to perform, they just don't have the obligation to continue performing.

The point here is that if you have an account with Cloudflare, but Cloudflare's terms of use allow it to cancel your account for any reason--which is how I understand the CEO's explanation, regardless of whether I think the stated reason is good or bad--then you may be relying on something that you shouldn't rely on.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com