Business Law Tutorial

Business Law Tutorial

Question 1
1. Invitation to treat
2. Offer
3. Counter offer
4. Rejection of offer and counter offer
5. Rejection of offer
6. Offer
7. Rejection of offer
8. Offer
9. Request for information and supply of information
10. Acceptance
11. Rejection of offer
12. Rejection of offer (Not valid since contract has been formed)
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Question 2
Issue
Whether a contract exists between Jane and Tarzan?
Rule
Offer and acceptance are essential elements of a contract. An offer is made by an offeror to
offeree, and the offeror must have the intention to bind him by the terms of the offer. In
Harvey v Facey [1893] UKPC 1 case, the court provided that an offer must be such that
bound the offeror into its terms as soon as the offeree accepts it. However, an offer is
different from an invitation to treat (Turner 2013). A contract cannot be formed based on
mere acceptance of an invitation to treat given by a party. Pharmaceutical Society of Great
Britain v Boots [1953] 1 QB 401 case is a helpful regarding this context. In this case, a
company introduced a self-service system in the shop in which customers can pick up goods
and bring them to the counter to pay. A suit was filed by the Pharmaceutical Society of
Great Britain in which it argued that the law provides that pharmaceutical products are
required to be sold by a company when a pharmacist is present in the shop. In its
judgement, the court considered the products on the shelves as an invitation to treat, and
customers have to bring them to the counter to purchase which was considered as an offer
which could either accepted or rejected by the shop assistant (Samuel 2016).
Application
Key facts
 Price of two chests are swapped, and the antique (normally $4,000) is swapped with
$200
 Jane bought the antique chest to the shop owner to purchase it for $200
 Tarzan realised the mistake and insisted that it should be sold for $4000
As discussed in Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain v Boots case, the goods displayed on
the counter are considered as an invitation to treat rather than an offer. Thus, Tarzan can
decline to sell the chest for $200 since no contract has formed.
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