Pre-contract information & contract summaries

Two documents do different jobs

Ofcom distinguishes the contract summary from the fuller contract information. The summary is designed to surface the key terms quickly. The detailed information provides the fuller contractual picture. For residential and small-business customers with ten employees or fewer, the contract summary should be supplied in writing before consent, and the detailed contract information before the customer is bound.

Why timing matters

In a dispute, “we emailed the terms” is incomplete. Ask when they were sent, which document was sent, whether it was in a durable written form, and whether the customer had already given consent.

If a provider can only produce a generic current tariff page, ask for the version that applied on the transaction date and any dispatch/audit record showing what was actually provided.

What to check in the contract summary

Use the summary as a reconciliation sheet. Check the core service, monthly and one-off charges, contract length, any scheduled price increase, termination/cancellation information and relevant broadband-speed information. For bundles, check which components have separate terms or end dates.

Then compare those fields with the first bill and the service actually provisioned.

The confirmation email is not the whole pre-contract record

An order confirmation is useful evidence of what the provider says was ordered, but it may have been generated after consent. If the dispute is about disclosure before agreement, the crucial record is the pre-contract material and its timing.

That distinction is especially important where the confirmation contains a charge or restriction the consumer says was never disclosed on the phone or checkout screen.

Check when the documents were actually supplied

A document can be perfectly accurate and still arrive too late to answer the real dispute. For residential customers, and small businesses with ten employees or fewer, Ofcom's contract rules require the short contract summary before the customer gives consent and the more detailed contract information before the customer is bound. In a telephone-sale dispute, the timestamps therefore matter, when was the summary generated, when was it sent or made available, when could you reasonably access it, and when does the provider say you agreed?

If the provider relies on an email sent after the call, ask it to explain what pre-contract information was supplied before consent and how. A later confirmation may prove what its system recorded; it does not by itself prove that the same information was provided at the required earlier stage.

Price rises, extras and cancellation should not be buried

The contract summary is meant to surface the points that are most likely to affect a buying decision. Check the core monthly charge, any specified in-contract price rise, the date that increase applies, minimum term, one-off charges, early termination position and the headline cancellation process. For new contracts entered into from 17 January 2025, any contractual increase to the core subscription price must be presented upfront in pounds and pence rather than by an inflation-linked or percentage formula.

Keep separate track of optional add-ons. A streaming service, calling feature, protection product or whole-home Wi-Fi add-on can have its own price, trial period or cancellation rule. If the provider now says an extra was part of the deal, make it identify where it appeared before agreement rather than allowing it to disappear into the total bill.

Accessible information is part of the process

Ofcom's contract rules also recognise that customers with disabilities may need the information in a reasonably acceptable accessible format. If the format itself prevented you understanding the proposed contract, record what you asked for, what was supplied and whether the provider proceeded before the information was usable to you.

What to ask for if the provider cannot produce the summary

Do not stop at “we cannot find it”. Ask whether the provider says no summary was generated, that it was generated but cannot now be retrieved, or that it was delivered through another channel. Request the contract-summary version, detailed contract information, generation and delivery timestamps, order audit trail and the event the provider treats as consent. Those are different records and a gap in one does not automatically prove what happened in the others.

Evidence worth keeping