Acceptance

Due to the danger of creating a Battle of forms situation, business people are advised not to change the language of the offer in their acceptance. This is expressed as the "mirror image rule".

Changes in the wording or terms are likely to mean that the reply will be interpreted as a counter-offer rather than an acceptance.

However there are also ways of finding that a contract has been created based on the behaviour of the parties. In the USA the UCC has a system for dealing with the situation in article 2-207. In UCC 2-207 can allow a contract to exist, even where some of the key terms of the contract are still not determined: for example quantities or dates of delivery. The expression of acceptance may contain different terms and still "operate" as an acceptance, unless the offeree explicitly states that their acceptance is conditional on the offeror agreeing to the extra added term.