Terms and conditions apply meaning

I listen to an advertisement on Toronto News Talk radio, and often hear the expression

Terms and conditions apply

at the end of the ad. It is spoken quickly.

What does it mean? In one article I found that it is a legal term meaning in some cases (unfair deal) the law can change contract regulations.

Solution 1:

It's a form of disclaimer, which allows them to make statements which may not actually be true from the listener's point of view.

For example:

All widgets half price till Christmas. Terms and conditions apply.

On investigation, the "terms and conditions" may include "Offer only applies to residents of Alaska", and so a listener in New York can't actually get a half-price widget at all.

This approach has been abused so much that in some places, the terms and conditions must be explicitly listed, and you will often hear this: in this instance, the narrator would say "Offer only applies to residents of Alaska" in their fastest possible voice, at the end of the advert.

Advertising standards agencies might allow the use of a general disclaimer like "Terms and conditions apply" as long as the terms and conditions do not strongly affect the meaning of the advert - for example if it only applied to people over the age of 12, which doesn't really change the advert much for most listeners (on the assumption that an 11 year old isn't interested in spending their pocket money on a widget anyway).

Solution 2:

It means that the terms and conditions as specified by the marketer apply. What those are depends on the marketer of the radio ad.

Therefore you have to investigate for each marketer what their terms and conditions contain. That however is not really a matter of English language but one of legal matters.

They speak faster to save air time which determines how much they have to pay the radio station.