Clause Adoption Over Time — TOS Tracker

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How the prevalence of key legal clauses has changed across 117733 tracked documents, 1997–2026.

Data Sources: 117733 documents tracked, 36 with clause extractions. Includes the Princeton-Leuven Corpus (2009–2019) and live monitoring (2024–present).

Adoption Rate Chart

Percentage of tracked documents containing each clause type, by year.

Mandatory ArbitrationClass Action WaiverJury Trial WaiverLimitation of LiabilityIndemnificationData CollectionThird-Party Data SharingData Sale (Yes)Data Sale (No)Data Sale Opt-OutAI/ML Training RightsGoverning LawAccount TerminationUnilateral ModificationAssignmentAutomated Decision-MakingProhibited Conduct

Clause Adoption Rate (2009–2026) % of Documents 0% 25% 50% 75% 100% 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026

Yearly Snapshot

Year Docs Mandatory ArClass ActionJury Trial WLimitation oIndemnificatData CollectThird-Party Data Sale (YData Sale (NData Sale OpAI/ML TrainiGoverning LaAccount TermUnilateral MAssignmentAutomated DeProhibited C
2009 3104 1%0.1%0%0.6%1.8%41.2%30.8%0%6.7%0.1%0%1.6%1.2%6.2%0%0%11.5%
2010 4084 1.1%0%0%0.8%1.7%42.8%32.5%0%6.4%0.1%0%1.5%1.5%6.7%0.1%0%13.1%
2011 5125 0.9%0%0%0.6%1.9%40.3%31.5%0%6.9%0.1%0%1.7%1.3%6.2%0.3%0%11.8%
2012 6079 0.9%0.1%0%0.7%1.9%37.9%29.4%0%5.6%0.1%0%1.4%1.5%5.8%0.2%0%11.4%
2013 7080 0.9%0.1%0%0.7%1.7%35.8%28.6%0%5.1%0.1%0%1.8%1.3%5.6%0.1%0%11.6%
2014 8086 0.8%0.1%0%0.7%2%35.3%28.2%0%5.1%0.2%0%1.9%1.5%5.7%0.1%0%11.7%
2015 9625 0.9%0.1%0%0.8%2.2%41.3%32.4%0%9%0.2%0%1.9%1.7%6.2%0.2%0%13.2%
2016 9814 1.8%0.2%0.1%0.9%2.2%43%34.1%0%10.3%0.3%0%2.2%2.1%6.8%0.3%0.1%15.4%
2017 8937 2.6%0.1%0.1%1.1%3%44.5%34.7%0%10.7%0.5%0%2.5%3.1%7.1%0.2%0.1%17.4%
2018 8431 3.8%0.3%0.1%1.8%4.2%53.2%44.4%0%13.5%1.1%0%3.2%3.8%9.5%0.5%1%22.8%
2019 9023 6.4%0.3%0.1%2%6.2%92.3%77%0.1%32.6%5.2%0%5.4%5.7%16.3%1%2.8%39.8%
2020 353 14.4%6.8%2.3%23.5%24.1%56.9%53.3%0%13.9%8.2%0%26.1%24.9%27.8%6.5%2%46.7%
2021 363 12.4%7.7%3.6%24.5%24%51.2%46%0%8.8%4.1%0%23.7%25.6%22.9%6.1%1.1%43%
2022 425 15.3%8%2.8%25.2%25.2%49.6%44.9%0.7%7.8%4.7%0.2%25.4%27.8%22.6%5.2%1.6%45.2%
2023 631 15.2%6.8%3.2%20.9%23.9%46.3%42.2%0.5%10.1%6.8%0.3%22.3%24.9%20.6%4%1.6%39.3%
2024 1030 15.6%8.3%4.6%20.8%22.3%45.9%40.6%0.1%10.8%5.9%0.1%20.8%20.1%19.6%5.1%1.4%36.3%
2025 2418 14.4%7.5%3.9%18.4%17.9%42.1%37.6%0.3%13.1%7.9%1.2%18.4%17.9%17.2%4.7%2.8%33.5%
2026 20255 6.3%2.5%1.2%16%13.9%42.9%30%0%8.2%2%0.3%16.4%14%12.4%1.9%0.8%29.4%

Compare Two Years

Methodology

Adoption rate = documents with clause / total documents with any version in that year. Clause extraction uses pattern matching (details). Historical coverage is uneven—early years have fewer tracked documents. See Research for dataset access.