A Case Study Of The Case Of Carlill V Carbolic Smoke Ball Co.

Conventionally a contract agreement is expressed as ‘an offer and acceptance’, which is the basis of a legally binding contract. There are traditionally two parties involved; the offeror, who makes the offer; and the offeree, who accepts that offer and creates a binding contract. In an offer the offeror must have shown or had the intention to be bound by that contract. In the case of Carlill V Carbolic Smoke Ball Co, this view is subverted and in the 19th Century it was new and unusual; due to the Claimant purchasing the Smoke Ball from a retailer and not Carbolic Smoke Ball Co. In the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain V Boots the normal offer and acceptance is also subverted, as in shops the shopkeeper would obtain what the client wanted and they would pay at a desk, Boots introduced self-service, where the customer chose what they wanted, put it in a basket and then paid at the till. This self-service brought about the question of selling pharmaceutical goods without the pharmacist. The court had to decide whether they

This was shown when the indirect purchase of the Smoke Ball still resulted in the user getting compensation, which was not a ‘conventional’ contract. The same goes for Boots being allowed to start the ‘self-service’ which most of the shops today adopt. The final ruling of this case meant that a new type of contract was formed that didn’t require paper and a pen the contract was formed when the customer takes the products to the till is the offer and there payment of the products at the till with the presence of the pharmacist is the acceptance of the contract. These unusual ‘offer and acceptance’ contracts between a business and a consumer paved the way for contract law as we know it