Law Of Purchasing

INVITATION TO TREAT

An invitation to treat can be defined as:"an expression of willingness to negotiate. A person making an invitation to treat does not intend to be bound as soon as it is accepted by the person to whom the statement is addressed’( Professor Burrows )
Lawyers distinguish invitation to treat from a binding offer , the distinction between an offer and invitation to treat isbest understood through the categories that the courts create.

The general rule is that an invitation to tender for a contract constitutes an invitation to treat and that any tenders made by suppliers in response to such an invitation constitute offers which may be accepted or rejected and not acceptances which would lead to a binding contract in respect of each of the tenders, that is to saythe ‘inviter’ can change his or her mind
Sometimes ,, the Court will anallyse the situation as involving not only the invitation to tender but also a separate unilateral contract which the party making the tender accepts by the act of tendering which therefore forms a binding contract

Eg : Blackpool & Flyde Aero Club Ltd v Blackpool Borough Council ( unilateral contract that council wouldconsider all tenders submitted on time ).
An invitation to open negations with a view to forming a Contract. In English law an invitation to treat is not an `offer' in the contractual sense, and agreement to its terms, ,does not understood to be the formation of a contract. There are many instances where invitations to treat are understood as offers. For example, if a shop displays goods for salewith a price label attached, they are not obligated to sell for the marked price. This is because displaying goods for sale is an invitation to treat, not an Offer

In an standard retail transaction the contract is made and concluded at the checkout. There have been attempts for selecting of items to purchase as being an Acceptance of Offer but these have generally failed, as customerchooses the item he or she wants to purchase

The following case studies will illustrate where there is an invitation to treat and not an offer
• Partridge v Crittenden [1968] 1 WLR 1204 (see case explained in APPENDIX)
• Fisher v Bell [1961] 1 QB 394) (see case explained in APPENDIX)

Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain v Boots [1952] 2 QB 795
Boots were prosecuted for selling drugswithout the presence of a qualified pharmacist. The customer, on entering the store was given a basket and, having selected which articles he/she wanted, would place them in a basket and take them to the cash desk. Near the desk was a registered pharmacist. The Pharmacy and Poisons Act 1933 made it unlawful to sell any listed poison unless the sale was effected under the supervision of a registeredpharmacist. The Plaintiffs alleged that the display of goods amounted to an offer which was accepted when the customer put the drugs in to the basket : hence if the drugs in question were poisons then the 'sale' took place before the pharmacist could intervene.
The Queens Bench and the CA rejected this argument. This was because the courts' analysed the situation as follows : the offer to buy camefrom the customer when the article was put in the basket - this offer the defendants remained free to accept or reject. If they did accept, then this took place at the cash desk in the presence of a registered pharmacist and hence there was no breach of the Act.

OFFER AND ACCEPTANCE

Each contract requires an offer and offer and acceptance
A contract is said to come into existence whenacceptance of an offer (agreement to the terms in it) has been communicated to the offeror by the offeree.‘ to constitute a contract, there must be an offer by one person to another and acceptance of that offer by the person to whom it is made, A mere statement of a person’s intention or a declaration of willingness to enter into negotiations is not an offer and cannot be accepted so as a for of...