1 Summary
Australian Consumer Law (‘ACL’) currently protects individual consumers from unfair terms in standard form contracts but this protection does not extend to small business. There have been instances where, big businesses have subjected small businesses to unfair terms in pre-prepared, standard form contracts on a ‘take it or leave it’ basis. This scenario leaves the small business vulnerable because they may lack the sufficient resources to effectively navigate or negotiate against these terms. Occasionally, these contracts containing unfair terms lead to an increase in the cost of conducting business which undermines trust – a vital aspect of business relationships. It is evident that legislative reforms are necessary to help
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If the term declared as ‘unfair’ is severable, the remainder of the contract continues to bind parties.
A contract term is ‘unfair’ if it would cause a significant imbalance to the parties’ rights in the transaction, if it is not reasonably necessary to protect the interests of the party relying on it, and if the term was applied or relied on, it would cause detriment to one of the parties. Examples of UCTs include terms that: allow one party to unilaterally vary the terms of a contract, or unilaterally decide whether to renew or terminate the contract; allow one party to unilaterally interpret the contract, including whether or not the contract has been breached; or limit one party’s right to sue the other.
2 Introduction
The Council of Small Business of Australia (‘COSBOA’) was established in 1979 and incorporated in 1985. COSBOA aims to provide strong advocacy on small business issues and our goals are to: promote and support the development of small business in Australia; advocate for policy change and regulatory reform in order to advance the interests of small business in Australia and foster an increased awareness and understanding of the role of small business in Australia. We endeavour to be
Multiple consumer protection agencies or independent bodies can assist consumers to resolve their complaints and provide advice about consumer related matters. Two of which are NSW Fair Trading and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
The area of law to be discussed would be implied 'terms of a contract which are not agreed by the parties.' They are terms which are related to 'contingencies which might affect the contract of employment in this case.' This is what 'parties intended but left unwritten in the gap of a contract.' There are five conditions by which a contract would be satisfied before a term would be implied. They are 'reasonable and equitable, necessary to give business efficacy so no term will be implied if
An offeror will have made an offer where it appears to a reasonable person in the position of the offeree that an offer was intended.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is an administer of the competition and Consumer Act (CCA) which is to prevent collusion among the firms and to prevent the individual firm which break the market equilibrium with their market power. Well competitive market would deliver efficiency costs, faster innovation, prevention of unduly concentrated markets, business freedom, wealth distribution, and enhancement of international competitiveness. Therefore, the ACCC is playing a crucial role in Australia, and their activities can be divided into four categories; (1) the policies for anti-competitive conduct and anti-competitive practices, (2) the mergers policy, (3) the consumer protection policy, and (4) four pillars policy.
The most efficient way for consumers to get what they want is through the ‘market’, not the government, but businesses have more power than their customers. Some businesses can and will use abuse this power and cheat and steal from consumers to make money. Because of this, the government regulates the behaviour of businesses to have a market economy that functions properly. These laws mainly protect consumers against; misleading/deceptive representations, unconscionable conduct, unfair contracts, and unsafe goods and/or services. To protect consumers, different legal and non-legal approaches have been taken.
However, contracting parties can also treat breach as material when expressly provided, even if objectively– the effect of that breach is unimportant. This is interpreted in Wade v Waldon, where the Lord President sets the criteria for rescission as a matter about the terms of the contract– whether stipulations go “to the root of the contract”, than the breach itself (Wade v Waldon, 1909 ).
Contracts are an important part of everyday life. They are an essential part of business. As a student of a business law class, I will discuss in this paper several aspects of contracts. This paper will give a definition of a contract and the essential elements necessary to form a valid contract. It will briefly discuss breach of contract and the difference between a material breach and a nonmaterial breach of contract. Examples of legal and equitable remedies available for breach of contracts will be highlighted. Also, legal excuses for nonperformance or other grounds for discharge of contracts will be addressed. Finally, three types of common contracts personally and professionally encountered will be mentioned.
a."If the court as a matter of law finds the contract or any clause of the contract to have been unconscionable at the time it was made the court may refuse to enforce the contract or it may enforce the remainder of the contract without the unconscionable clause, or it may so limit the application of any unconscionable clause as to avoid any unconscionable result" (What Is the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC)? n.a).
In a society where citizens are more aware of their rights and more willing to pursue those rights, the law is having an increasingly greater effect on the practice of education. Negligence, in terms of personal injury liability, is only one aspect of legal action which a teacher may face under current Australian negligence principles. In order to protect the many diverse stakeholders that may arise in such a situation, it is important to identify and clarify the law of negligence and how it operates within a school environment – now and in the future. This essay will do that, firstly, by discussing the current state of liability for teachers pursuant ss 2, 4 and 5 of the Civil Liability Act 2003 (Qld) (‘CLA’) and the prerequisite elements
Studmaster Pty Ltd was a landlord that owned a shopping complex in Bourke Street, Melbourne. Mrs Tran operated the “Vietnamese Lunch Box” outlet in the food court. She had little ability to speak or read English, which the representatives for Studmaster knew about. Studmaster proposed a three year renewal of her lease at $48,000 per annum plus GST for the first year and CPI increments in the second and third years.
The rule that courts will imply a term that was overlooked when the contract was being made, as it was so obvious
This essay will analyse the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (‘CRA 2015’) as it is a significant element of the government’s reform of consumer law in the UK. The Act has been lauded as an immense upheaval of consumer law due to the integration of eight existing pieces of legislation into one. The complicated regulations regarding goods and services that consumers and businesses struggle to comprehend will no longer apply under the Act.
In today’s English law, freedom of contract is one the foundation of contract law. The existence of freedom of contract requires three main considerations: the freedom to
injustice, since it was accorded that the contract would work in a certain way, and it could not be
Law 2: Under statute law, unfair terms within a contract are deemed by the court as unenforceable. As a result, the court will remove these terms from the standard form contract, and treat the contract as if the term was never present (Australian Consumer Law s 23(1)). One such example of unfair terms is when a term that allows one party (but not the other) to vary the terms of the contract after it has been agreed to (ACL s 25(1)(d)). In order to void the term under the Act (ACL s 23 (1)), two main requirements must be satisfied: