If something goes wrong and you want to hold Snowflake responsible, the maximum amount you can recover is limited to whatever fees you paid to Snowflake in the 12 months before your claim.
This analysis describes what Snowflake's agreement states, permits, or reserves. It does not constitute a legal determination about enforceability. Regulatory applicability and practical outcomes may vary by jurisdiction, enforcement context, and individual circumstances. Read our methodology
The agreement caps Snowflake's total financial exposure to the prior year of fees paid, regardless of the scale of data loss, service outage, or other harm; organizations with high-value or sensitive data stored on the platform should assess whether this cap is proportionate to their risk.
Provision expanded from unilateral Snowflake cap to mutual two-tier liability cap system with separate higher cap for Data Protection Claims, and clarified application to 'Affiliates' and 'Order Form(s) or SOW' specificity.
View full change record →Changed from mutual liability cap to Snowflake-specific cap, and replaced 'EACH PARTY'S TOTAL CUMULATIVE LIABILITY' language with 'SNOWFLAKE'S AGGREGATE LIABILITY', creating asymmetric liability exposure.
View full change record →The liability cap provision limits recovery for any claim against Snowflake to fees paid in the prior 12 months, which may be substantially lower than the value of data or business impact at risk if a significant service failure or data loss event occurs.
How other platforms handle this
If you knowingly misrepresent that any activity or material on our Services is infringing, you may be liable to ActiveCampaign for certain costs and damages.
A party's liability for any Liability under these Terms will be reduced proportionately to the extent the relevant Liability was caused or contributed to by the actions (or inactions) of the other party...
The Netflix service and/or some of the Netflix content may not be available at any time as a result of events beyond our reasonable control...we will not be held liable should such events occur.
"SNOWFLAKE'S AGGREGATE LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT EXCEED THE TOTAL AMOUNT PAID BY CUSTOMER IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS PRECEDING THE CLAIM.Excerpt from Snowflake's Terms of Service
REGULATORY LANDSCAPE: Liability cap clauses in enterprise SaaS agreements are standard commercial practice and are generally enforceable under California contract law, which governs this agreement.
Enforcement risk, jurisdiction flags, contract triggers, and due diligence action items.
Get the research letter
Companies change their terms quietly. We read every version and catch what actually changed. One email a week on the changes that matter and what they mean.
The agreement caps Snowflake's total financial exposure to the prior year of fees paid, regardless of the scale of data loss, service outage, or other harm; organizations with high-value or sensitive data stored on the platform should assess whether this cap is proportionate to their risk.
The liability cap provision limits recovery for any claim against Snowflake to fees paid in the prior 12 months, which may be substantially lower than the value of data or business impact at risk if a significant service failure or data loss event occurs.
ConductAtlas has identified this type of provision across 286 platforms. See the full comparison.
No. ConductAtlas is an independent monitoring service. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Snowflake.