Disclaimers with a twist.(CREDIT COLUMN)

Credit professionals deal with disclaimers on an almost daily basis. Without them, credit departments could be held legally responsible for faulty information on a credit reference, even when the department had no way to know the information was incorrect, or be forced to pay out large sums of money without any legal recourse for getting it back.

While disclaimers have always been part of the background scenery that accompanies the profession, they have been hurled into the forefront of the online media credit industry where executives have recently been faced with challenges presented by a change in the disclaimer of a large advertising agency.

Last summer, the online media industry was hit with a sudden change in terms by OMD--an advertising agency that buys more time on television than any other company in the U.S.--that affect the media outlets who extend credit to advertisers through ad agencies like OMD.

On the company's insertion order, the disclaimer originally read as such:

Agency is acting as an agent on behalf of its advertiser client, a disclosed principal, either named on this form or otherwise identified to Media Company. Agency will only be liable for the cost of the advertising purchased and other obligations to media company to the extent Agency has been paid by the advertiser for any such amount payable to the media company. For amounts not paid to Agency, Media Company will look solely to advertiser for payment.

It's a standard disclaimer that states the agency is only liable for the cost of purchased advertising and that if an advertiser doesn't pay an agency, meaning that the media company also doesn't get paid, then the media company must look to the advertiser for payment, rather than the agency itself.

The disclaimer, with new language added, now reads: