Offer

An offer is an essential step in forming a contract. An offer immediately precedes an acceptance.

An offer can take almost any form of communication, but some types offers must be formed in writing. Offers can be expressed - e.g. saying "I will buy that for X"; or implicit through action e.g. taking an item to the check-out in a store.

Offers can be presented and accepted by machines and notices, presenting an open offer to anyone. In Chapleton v Barry Urban District Council, Deck chairs were offered for rent on a self serve basis, with payment to be made "When the attendant comes around"; acceptance was held to for formed when the chair was taken.

In an Auction, an offer remains an offer until the hammer falls, at which point it is accepted.

Invitations to treat, willingness to negotiate, and offers
Pricing an item and placing it on a shelf is not an offer on its own; neither is verbally stating an intention to sell an item at a price. These are instead invitations to treat, even if signs promoting a "special offer" are present.

Any "acceptance" of these isn't really acceptance at all, it is instead an offer to which the original invitee can accept or reject.

This is not the case in a vending machine, which is an open ended offer, not an invitation to treat. The difference being in that a shopkeeper can reject the sale or propose alternative terms, a machine cannot. However, the situtuaion with websites is less clear - a confirmation email may be acceptance.

This was important in Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain v Boots Cash Chemists Southern Ltd 1952. Legislation required certain pharmaceutical items to be sold only under pharmacist supervision. There was no pharmacist near the item, but one at the cash desk; the items on the shelf were confirmed not to be an offer, the offer being made at the desk. Fisher v Bell 1961 similarly turned on the difference between an invitation to treat, and an offer when a storekeeper displayed a knife that was illegal for sale; as the presentation was not an offer for sale, his conviction could not stand (and has resulted in a change in legislative language in subsequent bills).

Communicating a price
Communication of a price, can in the right situation, be an offer.

In Harvey v Facey (1893) one party was asked the "lowest cash price" for a property from the other, the communication of this "lowest price" wasn't seen as an offer.

However, a message that offered a commodity sat a certain price and requested acceptance was held to be an offer in Philip & Co v Knoblauch (1907).

Offer live period
Offers which do not include a time period are assumed to be open for a "reasonable period of time". They can be withdrawn before acceptance.

Where a specific time and date is given, an offer is typically considered to be open to acceptance until the end of that period (Littlejohn v Hawden 1882), unless there are other wording that limit this (such as "will be open no later than").

Withdrawal, particularly in written offers, should be given before acceptance is communicated (McMillan v Caldwell (1991))

Offers lapse on death or bankruptcy, except where the offeror is acting as an agent only.