Businesses be warned - Unfair terms and legislation about to change

Most businesses would have heard about the unfair contract terms component of the Australian Consumer Law. However, at this time, the only real consequence to a business having unfair terms in its standard documentation is that the term may be deemed unenforceable by a court. This creates no real incentive for businesses, particularly big businesses, to be proactive and adopt fair practices.

The Federal Government is about to take some significant steps to change this position as outlined in this article.

A quick review of 'Unfair Contract Terms'

Before proceeding further, it is important to remind ourselves of what unfair contract terms law is all about.

The unfair contract terms regime applies to standard form contracts, being contracts that customers are generally expected to sign on a 'take it or leave it' basis.