Everything's a Discount

When you are on the selling side of a contract, everything the buyer asks for is a discount.

A reduced price is an obvious discount, but so are extended payment terms.

A cap on indexation is another discount, but so are more legal things like increased SLAs, increased caps on liability, additional indemnities, and increased risk.

Are these legal-ish things really discounts? Think about it this way. Assume I’m going to sell you 10 apples at £1 each, total £10. You then ask me for an additional apple for free. You are asking for 11 apples for £10 instead of my official price of 11 apples for £11. That’s a discount.

Giving more for the same price is a discount, even if the more is not easily expressed in pounds, shillings and pence.