In its unanimous decision late last year in Karpik v Carnival Plc & Anor [2023] HCA 39 (the Ruby Princess Class Action) the High Court provided significant guidance on the broad application of Australia’s unfair contract terms (UCT) regime under the Australian Consumer Law (ACL), particularly in relation to class action waiver and exclusive jurisdiction […]
Big penalties and wider application to commence 9 November 2023 In late 2022 the Australian Parliament passed the Treasury Laws Amendment (More Competition, Better Prices) Act 2022 to expand the protection to small businesses under the Australian Consumer Law against unfair terms in standard form small business contracts. The number of contracts caught by the […]
When the unfair contract terms provisions of the Australian Consumer Law were extended to apply to small business contracts in late 2016, some users of these contracts made no changes or took a fairly “light touch” approach to reviewing their template agreements. This is possibly because it was unlikely a dispute over whether a clause […]
Profit opportunities for franchise systems arising from changes to competition laws When your franchise system was established, considerable thought was given to the profit centres it would create and achieving from them a return satisfactory to the system and/or its shareholders, which at the same time provided an acceptable income to your franchisees to justify […]
The Federal Court has again reminded us that the law will step in to defend franchisees who have suffered at the hands of overzealous franchisors. The Court recently found that an experienced franchisor, South East Melbourne Cleaning (South East) engaged in unconscionable conduct in its dealings with franchisees and contravened section 21 of the Australian […]
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