Invitation to treat

An invitation to treat, called an invitation to bargain in the United States, is a concept in contract law, from the Latin invitatio ad offerendum, meaning inviting an offer, describing an expression of willingness to negotiate that is not itself intended to bind the person making it as soon as it is accepted. A display of goods for sale, or an invitation to attend an auction where items are displayed, is generally treated as an invitation to treat rather than an offer, so that in an auction it is the bidder who makes the offer, which becomes a binding contract only once accepted in the customary way, such as by the fall of the auctioneer's hammer. Such preliminary communications, sometimes called invitations to treat, requests for information, or statements of intention, are distinguished from the offer itself in the ordinary process of contract formation, which requires one party to make an offer and the other to accept it.