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Judges and scholars routinely use concepts such as exploitation in a justificatory way. In the field of contract law, a finding of exploitation may excuse a party from the normal consequences of his or her manifested contractual assent. However, the meaning of exploitation is usually assumed for this purpose, rather than elaborated. In fact, exploitation is a highly contested concept. Exploitative Contracts examines the essentially contestable criteria of interpersonal exploitation claims. It puts forward a conception of exploitation: legal contractual exploitation, a form of wrongdoing that arises in connection with the formation of contracts. This notion is shown to underpin traditional heads of relief in contract law, including unconscionable dealing, undue influence, unilateral mistake in equity and lawful act duress. Importantly, this notion of legal contractual exploitation conforms to the intellectual and institutional forms of order presupposed by the classic liberal conception of the contract.