Clause Adoption Over Time — TOS Tracker

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How the prevalence of key legal clauses has changed across 122134 tracked documents, 1997–2026.

Data Sources: 122134 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 4254 0.8%0%0%0.5%1.5%29.9%22.4%0%2.6%0%0%1.1%1%4.7%0%0%8.4%
2010 5580 1.1%0%0%0.5%1.2%31.2%24%0%3.1%0.1%0%1.1%1%4.8%0%0%9.1%
2011 6918 0.7%0.1%0%0.5%1.5%31.7%24.4%0%3.5%0.1%0%1.1%1.1%5.2%0.1%0%9.3%
2012 7797 1%0.1%0%0.6%1.5%31.6%24%0%3.5%0.1%0%1.2%1.1%4.7%0.1%0%9.4%
2013 8667 0.8%0%0%0.6%1.5%31.8%24.8%0%4.3%0.1%0%1.2%1.2%5%0.1%0%9.8%
2014 9225 0.9%0.1%0%0.6%1.7%32.5%25.6%0%4.7%0.1%0%1.6%1.4%5.2%0.1%0%10.7%
2015 9666 0.7%0.1%0%0.7%1.9%32.7%26.3%0%5.2%0.1%0%1.7%1.4%5.1%0.1%0%10.9%
2016 9842 1.7%0.2%0.1%0.9%2%36.2%29%0%7.6%0.2%0%1.9%1.8%5.8%0.2%0%13.3%
2017 8943 2.4%0.1%0.1%1%2.6%39.9%31.3%0%8.9%0.4%0%2.3%2.8%6.3%0.2%0.1%15.6%
2018 8397 3.6%0.2%0.1%1.6%3.8%48.8%40.8%0%11.8%0.9%0%3%3.5%8.8%0.4%0.8%20.9%
2019 9004 6.5%0.3%0.1%1.9%6.2%92.5%77.3%0.1%32.6%5.2%0%5.3%5.6%16.3%0.9%2.8%39.7%
2020 260 17.7%7.3%2.7%28.1%28.8%72.7%67.7%0%16.9%10%0%31.2%30.4%35%4.6%1.9%58.1%
2021 246 16.7%10.6%5.3%30.9%31.7%70.7%62.2%0%10.2%5.3%0%30.9%33.7%29.3%6.1%1.2%57.7%
2022 295 19%9.8%2.7%31.5%31.9%67.1%59.7%1%11.2%6.8%0%32.9%35.3%30.2%4.4%2.4%60%
2023 390 23.6%10.3%4.9%31.8%37.2%72.3%65.9%0.5%14.1%9.5%0%34.1%38.2%32.1%4.1%2.3%59.5%
2024 621 25.3%13.4%7.4%33.7%36.2%76.2%67.1%0.2%16.4%10.1%0%33.7%32.7%31.9%5%2.1%60.1%
2025 1361 24.3%13%6.8%31.7%30.7%72.9%64.9%0.6%20%13.1%0.2%31.6%30.8%29.4%4.8%4.3%57.1%
2026 14239 8.5%3.2%1.5%21.9%19%60%41.8%0%10.8%2.7%0.1%22.4%19.1%16.8%1.7%0.9%40.4%

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.