contract-law legal-terms definition
Is there a commonly agreed on definition of &quot;third party&quot; or does a contractual agreement have to define the term?
<p>Does a contract have to define &quot;third party&quot; or does it have a standard meaning of &quot;any entity not a party to this agreement&quot;?</p>
<p>If <strong>third party</strong> is not explicitly defined in an agreement between Party A and Party B, is Party B free to regard its agent, or any company it contracts with to perform services (even a company that is a competitor of Party A) to be <em>not</em> a third party?</p>
<p>Does the answer to these questions vary by jurisdiction?</p>
<p>I have seen the following explicit definition in a company's Privacy statement:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Third Party: any  entity that is not Acme Widgets, an Acme Widgets
employee, contractor, or agent.</p>
</blockquote>

<h2>Third-party has a general meaning but one that can be changed by the contract</h2>
<p>Third-party means someone who is not a party to the contract nor an agent of one of the parties (such as an employee of one of them). The term came about because most contracts only have two parties and they were historically identified as the first party and the second party although that usage is now uncommon: that makes everyone else a third party, even where the contract has more than 2 parties.</p>
<p>The definition you cite expands the definition to include contractors of one of the parties: independent contractors are third parties unless their contract amounts to an agency agreement.</p>

<p><strong>Is there a commonly agreed definition of &quot;third party&quot;..?</strong></p>
<p>In <strong><a href="/questions/tagged/england-and-wales" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;england-and-wales&#39;" rel="tag">england-and-wales</a></strong> it is defined by statute under <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1999/31/section/1?timeline=false" rel="nofollow noreferrer">s.1(1) of the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999</a> as:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>...a person who is not a party to a contract (a “third party”)...</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Generally Third Party means &quot;a party that is not party to the contract&quot; It is not the exact number of parties as there could be any number of 2 or more contracting parties.   A &quot;third party&quot; usually means that the injured party cannot claim damages stipulated in the contract if the defending party was acting with respect to the non-signatory's actions.</p>
<p>In cases, where the party would have acted but for unforeseen actions that no party could have controlled, the event would fall under a blanket term usually called an &quot;Act of God&quot;.  Usually a weather delay or closure or other natural disaster is termed this and it usually comes up in transit.</p>
