{"id":223950,"date":"2023-08-31T12:47:24","date_gmt":"2023-08-31T02:47:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/slflawyers.com.au\/?p=223950"},"modified":"2023-08-31T12:47:24","modified_gmt":"2023-08-31T02:47:24","slug":"be-prepared-significant-changes-to-the-unfair-contract-regime-commencing-november-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/slflawyers.com.au\/zh\/news\/be-prepared-significant-changes-to-the-unfair-contract-regime-commencing-november-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Be prepared – Significant Changes to the Unfair Contract Regime commencing November 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"
There has been a lot of movement in the equality of parties rights and obligations under contract over the years and finally, with the upcoming changes detailed below, we are able to potentially declare some contracts as unfair. <\/em><\/p>\n These changes have been introduced in the wake of the Federal Court of Australia\u2019s recent judgement handed down against FujiFilm Business Innovation Australia Pty Ltd. The Court found, amongst other things, that Fuji\u2019s contracts unfairly allowed them to unilaterally vary the price charged to consumers, automatically renew the contract without notifying the consumer and referenced extraneous documents that were not transparent to the consumer.<\/em><\/p>\n The current position in relation to \u2018unfair contract terms\u2019 (\u2018UCT\u2019<\/strong>) in standard form consumer and small business contracts is well established in Australia under the 2010 \u5e74\u7af6\u722d\u548c\u6d88\u8cbb\u8005\u6cd5\u6848<\/em> (Cth) (\u2018CCA<\/strong>\u2019).<\/p>\n The key factors in determining if a term will be declared unfair include if:<\/p>\n Whilst the current unfair contract terms regime is well entrenched within Australian law, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (\u2018ACCC<\/strong>\u2019) has more recently identified a growing prevalence of unfair terms seeping into standard form contracts and consumers being left without adequate legislative protections.<\/p>\n In response to this inadequacy, the ACCC has prioritised UCTs by enacting into legislation the Treasury Laws Amendment (More Competition, Better Prices) Act<\/em> 2022 <\/em>(Cth).<\/p>\n Commencing from 10 November 2023, the unfair contract term \u2018regime\u2019 will be expanded to capture a multitude of new contracts whilst also introducing harsher penalties for those relying, or purporting to rely, on an UCT.<\/p>\n Under the current regime, if a Court finds that a term is an UCT, then the term will be deemed void and unenforceable.\u00a0 As from 10 November 2023, this legislative protection will be expanded to prevent persons from entering into, applying or relying on (or purporting to apply or rely on) an UCT.\u00a0 Each unfair term contained in a contract will be considered a separate contravention and the penalties outlined in Table 2 below will apply.<\/p>\n The changes have been introduced to empower the Courts with more extensive remedies in the face of UCT. Currently, the Court may make orders where a person has suffered, or is likely to suffer, loss or damage from an UCT; and\/or to void, vary or refuse to enforce part of all of the relevant contract. The new legislation will allow the Court to make orders it considers appropriate to prevent or reduce loss or damage that has, or may be, caused by the UCT, including to existing contracts that contain the same or similar terms.<\/p>\n Some of the major changes to the UCT Regime are outlined below.<\/p>\n Figure 1 \u2013\u00a0 Major UCT changes from 10 November 2023<\/strong><\/p>\n\n