Article 8Nullity of Clauses Exempting a Business Operator from Liability for Damages
第八条（事業者の損害賠償の責任を免除する条項等の無効）
The following consumer contract clauses are void:
次に掲げる消費者契約の条項は、無効とする。
clauses completely exempting a business operator from liability to compensate a consumer for damages arising from default by the business operator, or granting authority to the business operator to determine whether or not the business operator is responsible;
clauses partially exempting a business operator from liability to compensate for damages arising from default by the business operator, or granting authority to the business operator to determine to what extent the business operator is responsible (limited to default which arises due to an intentional act or gross negligence on the part of the business operator, the business operator's representative, or employees);
clauses completely exempting a business operator from liability to compensate for damages to a consumer arising from a tortious act committed by the business operator during the business operator's performance of the consumer contract, or granting authority to the business operator to determine whether or not the business operator is responsible therefor; and
clauses partially exempting a business operator from liability to compensate for damages to a consumer arising from a tortious act committed by the business operator (limited to cases in which this arises due to an intentional act or gross negligence on the part of the business operator, the business operator's representative, or employees) during the business operator's performance of the consumer contract, or granting authority to the business operator to determine to what extent the business operator is responsible.
Regarding the clauses set forth in item (i) or (ii) of the preceding paragraph, when the consumer contract is a contract for value and the delivered subject matter does not conform to the provisions of the contract with respect to type or quality, (in the case that the consumer contract is a service contract, and the contractor delivers subject matters that do not conform to the provisions of the contract with respect to type or quality to the party that ordered the work (if the work does not require delivery, when the subject matter does not conform to the provisions of the contract with respect to type or quality when the work is completed); hereinafter the same applies in this paragraph) in the event that the clauses exempt the liability of the business operator for compensating damages caused to the consumer by this, or grant the authority to determine the presence of liability or limit the liability to the business operator, and when they fall under the following cases, the provisions of the preceding paragraph do not apply:
前項第一号又は第二号に掲げる条項のうち、消費者契約が有償契約である場合において、引き渡された目的物が種類又は品質に関して契約の内容に適合しないとき（当該消費者契約が請負契約である場合には、請負人が種類又は品質に関して契約の内容に適合しない仕事の目的物を注文者に引き渡したとき（その引渡しを要しない場合には、仕事が終了した時に仕事の目的物が種類又は品質に関して契約の内容に適合しないとき。）。以下この項において同じ。）に、これにより消費者に生じた損害を賠償する事業者の責任を免除し、又は当該事業者にその責任の有無若しくは限度を決定する権限を付与するものについては、次に掲げる場合に該当するときは、前項の規定は、適用しない。
if the delivered subject matter does not conform to the provisions of the contract with respect to type or quality prescribed in the consumer contract, when it is stated in the contract that the business operator is responsible for subsequent completion, or for reducing its price or offering remuneration depending on the level of nonconformity; and
a previously or simultaneously concluded contract between the contracting consumer and another business operator commissioned by the contracting business operator, or a previously or simultaneously concluded contract made between the contracting business operator and another business operator for the benefit of the consumer stipulates that when the delivered subject matter does not conform to the contents of the contract with respect to type or quality, the other business operator bears full or partial responsibilities for compensation for damage caused to the consumer due to the subject matter not conforming to the contents of the contract with respect to type or quality, or has responsibility for subsequent completion of the subject matter.
A consumer contract clause is void if it partially exempts a business operator from liability to compensate for damages to a consumer arising from the default of the business operator (excluding those that arise due to an intentional act or gross negligence on the part of the business operator, the business operator's representative, or employees) or a tortious act committed by the business operator (excluding those that arise due to an intentional act or gross negligence on the part of the business operator, the business operator's representative, or employees) during the business operator's performance of the consumer contract and does not clarify that only actions that arise due to a default excluding defaults that arise due to an intentional act or gross negligence on the part of the business operator, the business operator's representative, or employees are applicable.
Read this with the articles around it
consumer
「消費者」
Any individual, except when becoming a party to a contract as a business or for the purposes of a business.
Defined inArticle 2, paragraph (1)· applies throughout the law
business operator
「事業者」
The business side of a contract: any corporation or other organization, and any individual who becomes a party to a contract as a business or for the purposes of a business (everywhere in this Act except Article 43, paragraph (2), item (ii)).
Defined inArticle 2, paragraph (2)
consumer contract
「消費者契約」
Any contract made between a consumer (消費者) and a business operator (事業者).
Defined inArticle 2, paragraph (3)· applies throughout the law
void
無効
Having no legal effect from the start. A void act does not take effect even if the parties later confirm it; confirming it knowing it is void counts as making a new act (Civil Code, Article 119). An act against public order or good morals is void (Article 90). Some Acts that protect one side make void a term that takes that protection away: a term of a land lease that is worse for the tenant than the Act on Land and Building Leases' rules on how long the lease lasts and how it is renewed (Article 9), a clause of a consumer contract that frees a business from all liability for damage its failure to perform causes the consumer (Consumer Contract Act, Article 8, paragraph (1), item (i)), or the part of a labor contract that falls short of the Labor Standards Act's standards, which the Act's standard replaces (Labor Standards Act, Article 13).
Written by AI using Civil Code, Arts. 90, 119, Act on Land and Building Leases, Art. 9, Consumer Contract Act, Art. 8 and Labor Standards Act, Art. 13 as a reference.