Notes

Firstly, the advert that you published on 10 September in the Ruralshire Gazette is
considered to be a ‘unilateral offer’ in the eyes of the law. Therefore the advertisement
means that Local Delights made an offer to the world in return for the completion of a
specified act. Most adverts are considered as ‘invitations to treat’, which means that they
are merely inviting an offer rather than making an offer. However, in this case the
advertisement clearly specifies that upon placing an order, the individual will be given a
£30 gift voucher free. This is a unilateral offer. With this in mind, acceptance is deemed
to have occurred when the offeree performs the required act. In this case, acceptance
occurs when anyone places an order with Local Delights by the 20th September.

This principle is shown in Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co (1893) when the defendants
published advertisements stating that if anyone used their smokeballs for a specified
length of time and still caught flu, they would pay that person £100. They even went as
far to say that they had deposited £1,000 with their bankers to prove that they were
serious about this claim. It was held in this case that the Carbolic Smoke Ball Co had
made an offer to the world at large by publishing the advertisements. Therefore, as Mrs
Carlill had carried out the terms of the offer fully and still contracted flu, she was
entitled to receive the £100 promised to her. This was despite the Carbolic Smoke Ball
Co claiming that they had made the offer in ‘jest’ and that an offer could not be made to
the whole world. (Adams, Elliot, & Quinn, 2014).

You rightly revoked the unilateral offer made by Local Delights by publishing a second
advert on the 15th September upon realisation that you had forgotten to include a
minimum order spend as a condition of the offer. It is important that you communicated
the revocation of the offer through the same method of communication as you had made
the offer initially for the withdrawal to be valid.