The terms of many contracts are set out in printed standard forms which are used for all transactions of the same kind. Usually, standard form contracts are settled by trade associations in order to be used by their members in their international commercial activity. The main purpose of these standard forms is to save time. The activity of businessmen would become almost impossible if all the terms of every contract had to be settled for each transaction. Also, standard form contracts are an instrument for allocating contractual risks; they can be used to determine in advance who is to bear the expense of insuring against those risks. Nevertheless, the standard form contracts could be used in an unfair way, mainly in relation with private consumers (e.g. to exclude or limit the supplier’s liability for defective performance; to deprive the other party of some protection which the law would
normally give him).