Have you been offered a standard form contract on a ‘take it or leave it’ basis? Don’t have the time or expertise to the review the contract terms? New laws protecting small businesses from unfair terms in standard form contracts come into play on 12 November 2016.
The law applies where at least one of the businesses employs less than 20 people, and the price payable under the contract is no more than $300,000, or $1 million if the contract is for more than 12 months. The law doesn’t apply to terms that set the price payable under a contract.
A term may be unfair if it causes significant imbalance, is not necessary to protect the legitimate interests of the party advantaged by the term, and would cause harm to the other party if it were relied on. If the court finds a term unfair, that particular term will be void and treated as if it never existed, but the rest of the contract will remain in effect.
For more information about your rights visit www.accc.gov.au/uct or watch the video on the ACCC YouTube channel to learn more about the protections small businesses have under this new law.
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