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TRADE PRACTICES |
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20 April 2009 |
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National
'unfair contracts' provisions |
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Chris Bowen, in his capacity as Minister for Consumer
Affairs, released more details over the weekend of proposed new provisions in
the Trade Practices Act that will allow consumers to challenge 'unfair'
terms in standard form contracts. A copy of the press release and the latest
details of the proposals can be found here. This most recent release focuses on penalty or exit
fees. Interestingly, the Minister seems to have backed away from outright
'banning' of some provisions (such as terms that deny the existence or effect
of oral representations and terms under which consumers acknowledge they have
read or understood a contract) as proposed in Federal Government's initial
discussion paper. The Minister has previously stated that the unfair
contracts legislation will be introduced by July. Current indications are
that this means there will be no exposure draft of the legislation - the
first we may see of the proposed provisions is likely to be when they are
introduced to Parliament. We will provide detailed analysis as soon as
more details or a draft Bill are available. New
all inclusive pricing - five weeks to go There are now just five weeks until the new all
inclusive pricing rules (new s53C) of the Trade Practices Act come
into effect. If you currently deal with individuals and ever
advertise or quote in the form of 'base price plus charges' you need to be
getting ready for the new rules now because, from 25 May, it will be illegal
to advertise a price or give a quote to consumers for a product without, as
far as possible, adding up and prominently disclosing the total price for
them. After 25 May, you can expect the ACCC to have a team of
people looking for and taking enforcement action against companies that are
not complying with the new rules. The ACCC's guidelines to the new rules are expected to
be released shortly. We will issue an e’news as soon as they are. |
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If you have any questions, please contact one of our
partners named below. |
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Richard Westmoreland |
Robert Gardini |
Peter van Rompaey |
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(02) 9334 8717 |
(02) 9334 8619 |
(03) 8633 7506 |
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Wayne Jenvey |
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(02) 9334 8841 |
(07) 3020 2801 |
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If you do not wish to receive further e-Alerts from our
Commercial Group, please reply ‘remove’ to this email. |
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hwlebsworth.com.au |
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