Unfair contract terms and off-the-plan sales - revisited

Introduction

It has been almost three years since Australia's consumer laws were reformed by the introduction of the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) and with it, the unfair contract terms regime.¹ The ACL aims to improve and enhance standard form consumer contracts and is particularly concerned with providing consumers with increased protection against a power imbalance in favour of providers of consumer goods and services.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has since undertaken a review of standard form contracts from selected industries and has recently published a report highlighting some of the key issues. Although the property industry was not one of the industries subjected to the ACCC's review, there are certain elements of this report that are nonetheless worth highlighting in the