Continued Use as Acceptance

What is continued use as acceptance?

Continued use as acceptance is a clause that says if you keep using a service after its terms change, you have agreed to the new terms. You do not have to click anything or sign anything. Staying is treated as saying yes.

It usually appears in the same section as the unilateral amendment clause, the part that lets the vendor change its terms on its own. The two work together: one lets the vendor change the deal, the other says how you "accept" the change.

This is how you can end up bound by terms you never read. Your team logs in on Monday as usual, and under the vendor's contract, you have just accepted the new version.

What it looks like in a vendor's terms

A typical clause reads like this:

We may revise these Terms at any time. Revised Terms take effect on the date shown. If you continue to access or use the services after that date, you accept the revised Terms. If you do not agree, you must stop using the services.

• "Revise these Terms at any time": the vendor's right to change the deal.
• "Take effect on the date shown": the effective date.
• "Continue to access or use": any login, API call or page visit can count.
• "You must stop using the services": your only listed choice if you disagree is to leave.

Real examples are easy to find. The AWS Customer Agreement says that by continuing to use the services after the effective date, "you agree to be bound by the modified terms." X's 2026 update says that if you keep using its products on or after October 9, 2026, you agree to the updated terms.

Is it enforceable?

Not automatically. The answer depends on the facts, on the court and on the state whose law applies. US courts often look for actual notice of the change before they hold someone to it.

The leading example is Douglas v. U.S. District Court (9th Cir. 2007). A long-distance phone provider posted new terms on its website, including an arbitration clause and new charges. The customer paid automatically, had no reason to visit the site and was never told. The court held he was not bound. It said a revised contract is only an offer, and customers have no obligation to keep checking a website for changes.

The ABA's Business Law Today describes a similar result in Knutson v. Sirius XM Radio (9th Cir. 2014). A car buyer was mailed the terms of a satellite radio trial about a month after the purchase. His continued use did not show agreement, because nothing showed he knew he was dealing with Sirius XM.

The Douglas court also said that even if continued use could count as agreement, that could only be inferred after proper notice of the changes, as the Ninth Circuit's opinion states. So notice is the key. A clear email, sent in advance, makes a vendor's position much stronger than a quiet edit to a web page.

Most of these cases involve consumers. Courts may treat business customers differently, so do not assume a court will protect you.

A real change we caught

Venpo flagged that using Grafana's website now binds you to arbitration. The terms treat using the site as agreeing to them, and those terms now send disputes to arbitration, a private process outside the courts. See arbitration clause.

Why it matters to you

Your team uses dozens of tools every day. Under these clauses, each login can count as accepting whatever the vendor changed last. That can include new fees, new data uses, a lower limitation of liability or new rules for disputes.

It also cuts the time you have. If the clause binds you from the effective date, your window to object is the gap between the notice and that date. If you missed the email, you may have no window at all.

And "stop using the service" is rarely a real option. A tool your team relies on cannot be dropped overnight. Leaving takes planning, a data export and often a replacement.

What to check

• Whether the terms say continued use means acceptance, and from what date.
• How the vendor gives notice: email to you, or only a posted page.
• Whether you get a set number of days between the notice and the effective date.
• Whether you can cancel and get a refund for prepaid time instead of just stopping.
• In a negotiated contract, ask that changes bind you only after written notice, or only from your next renewal.
• Keep the notices you receive and copies of each version, so you can show what you were told and when.

How Venpo helps

If continued use counts as acceptance, every change you miss is a change you may have agreed to. Venpo watches your vendors' terms, privacy policies, DPAs and other public legal pages and emails you a plain-English alert when one changes, with what changed and why it matters, so you can act before the effective date.