Unfair contract terms are a key focus in the ACCC’s latest Small Business in Focus report.
The twice yearly report, which provides an update on key developments in the small business, franchising, and agriculture sectors, reports on the ACCC’s continued actions to protect small businesses against terms in a standard form contract that may be considered unfair.
There are some things to look out for before signing up to a customer loyalty scheme.
Uber Eats has committed to changing its contracts with restaurants following an investigation by the ACCC.
From at least 2016, Uber Eats’ contract terms made restaurants responsible for the delivery of meal orders, in circumstances where they had no control over that delivery process once the food left their restaurant.
Uber Eats’ contract terms give it the right to refund consumers and deduct that amount from the restaurant even when the problem with the meal may not have been the fault of the restaurant.
Café, restaurant and take away food services industries will be the target of the ACCC’s next round of Franchising Code compliance checks.
The ACCC has responsibility for regulating the Franchising Code of Conduct in Australia, which includes conducting an active compliance check program.
“The ACCC receives more franchising code related reports from café, restaurant and take-away food franchisees than any other sector, and for this reason franchisors operating in this sector will be the target of our next round of checks” Deputy Chair Mick Keogh said.
The Federal Court has ordered former Murray Goulburn Co-operative Managing Director Gary Helou to pay $200,000 in penalties for being knowingly concerned in Murray Goulburn’s false or misleading claims about the farmgate milk price it expected to pay dairy farmers during the 2015-16 milk season.
“The penalty imposed against Mr Helou reflects his seniority at Murray Goulburn and involvement in misleading representations about the farmgate milk price,” ACCC Deputy Chair Mick Keogh said.
ACCC Chair Rod Sims addressed the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA) National Small Business Summit 2018 today regarding business-to-business unfair contract terms in standard form contracts, advocating there is a strong case to both strengthen the law and introduce penalties for breaking it.
ACCC Chair Rod Sims addresses the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia’s National Small Business Summit regarding recent ACCC enforcement action relating to unfair contract terms, limitations that the ACCC has identified in the business-to-business unfair contract terms law and the codes of conduct.
Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory Company Holdings Limited (WCB) has altered terms in its milk supply agreements and milk supply handbook following engagement with the ACCC regarding potentially unfair contract terms.
WCB’s contracts with farmers contained terms that allowed it to unilaterally vary the milk price and other milk supply terms, with the farmer unable to terminate the milk supply agreement early without incurring a financial penalty.
The ACCC has accepted a court enforceable undertaking from home builder Wisdom Properties Group Pty Ltd (Wisdom) to remove contract terms contained in its standard home building agreements which are unfair under the Australian Consumer Law.
From October 2008, Wisdom’s Home Building Agreement contained non-disparagement clauses that allowed it to control or prevent any public statements such as online reviews, made by customers about its services.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s new report into potentially unfair contract terms details its review of 46 contracts across seven industries, which resulted in a range of businesses making changes to their small business standard form contracts.
The ACCC will begin enforcing the new law this week [Nov 12], when consumer protections against unfair contract terms are extended to include up to 2 million Australian small businesses.