Liability cap · Web development
Liability cap in web development: what is normal
Cap web-dev liability at the fees and exclude data loss, downtime, and 'error-free' guarantees no software can honor.
Typical range
Liability capped at the fees paid, consequential damages excluded (lost revenue, downtime, data loss), and warranties limited to conforming to spec, not to being bug-free forever.
Off-market
Uncapped liability plus an 'error-free' or 'no downtime' warranty, making the developer liable for the client's lost revenue whenever a bug or outage occurs.
One-line fix
"Developer's liability is capped at the fees paid. Software is warranted to conform to spec, not to be error-free. Consequential damages, including lost revenue and data loss, are excluded."
What we see
Software liability is uniquely dangerous because a single bug or outage can be blamed for large downstream losses. An uncapped clause combined with a broad warranty can make a developer answerable for a client's lost sales during a spike, an outcome far larger than any project fee.
The healthy structure does two things: caps liability at the fees paid and excludes consequential damages (lost revenue, downtime, data loss). Just as important is the warranty scope: software should be warranted to conform to the agreed spec, not promised to be perfect or bug-free, which nothing can honestly guarantee.
The 'error-free' warranty is the specific trap in dev contracts. No non-trivial software is bug-free, so promising it, uncapped, is signing up for unlimited liability on an impossible standard. Limiting the warranty to spec conformance and a defined fix period is the professional norm.
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