Protections for small businesses against unfair contract terms

Alex Hutchens, John Kettle, Malcolm McBratney, Paul McLachlan

Under the Australian Consumer Law, unfair terms in standard form contracts with consumers can be declared void, but small businesses (who are often subject to the same power imbalance when negotiating agreements with large suppliers) have to date had no protection under that regime.

On 18 August 2015, a Bill to extend protections against unfair contract terms to small businesses passed the House of Representatives. The Treasury Legislation Amendment (Small Business and Unfair Contract Terms) Bill 2015 (Cth) has already been referred to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee which is due to report on the legislation on 14 September 2015.

At last, the new Franchising Code is here

Franchisors must act fast to comply by January 1

Malcolm McBratney, Dylan Kerrigan, Stephanie Parkin

After much anticipation the new Franchising Code of Conduct is now publicly available and is due to commence on 1 January 2015.

OPSM parent company loses $33.5 million ADF contract for privacy breach

The parent company of OPSM, Luxottica Retail Australia has lost a $33.5 million contract with the Australian Defence Force (ADF) by sending ADF medical records overseas.

Luxottica was awarded the contract by the ADF in 2012 under which it provided optical services to all ADF personnel.  At that time, Luxottica claimed that it would exclusively offer eye services to more than 80,000 ADF personnel each year primarily through its OPSM stores.