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Mythbuster: ‘Entire agreement’ clauses lock out misrepresentation claims

By Peter Moon on 11 January 2012 in ACCC, Australian Consumer Law, Competition and Consumer Act, Making sense of contracts, Mythbusters, Trade Practices Act

People are often confused about the effect of clauses that say ‘You acknowledge that we have made no other promises or representations to you.’

Often you see such clauses quoted in support of an argument that a claim for misrepresentation cannot succeed where a contract contains this clause.

But that ain’t necessarily so. In fact, it ain’t even normally so.

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SFoA backgrounder released

By Peter Moon on 16 June 2009 in Making sense of contracts, Telecommunications Act

Many CSPs are already using a ’Standard Form of Agreement’ but many others don’t … and don’t know what it’s all about.

To demystify the topic, here’s a dowloadable SFoA backgrounder that overviews what they are and why they can improve CSP business processes, with the compliments of CSP Central and Logie-Smith Lanyon Lawyers

You should also check out this post about complying with the SFoA Summary notification regime.

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ACCC explains warranty laws … again

By Peter Moon on 16 March 2009 in advertising, Making sense of contracts, Trade Practices Act

For some reason, many businesses just can’t get their minds around Australia’s warranty laws. ACCC has issued a new booklet explaining how it works, again.

The subject has been addressed any number of times by the Commission in the past. Despite that, serious breaches by organisations that should know better are commonplace. In recent months, CSP Central has pointed out breaches by:

Misrepresenting consumer rights is a criminal offence under the Trade Practices Act, so business and lawyers alike would be wise to study the new ACCC guide.

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Test yourself: Who is a Consumer and what is a Consumer Contract ?

By Erhan Karabardak on 27 January 2009 in Code compliance, Making sense of contracts, Spot Check

One of our recent posts raised an interesting question which many ISPs and telcos seem to overlook; Who is a ‘Consumer’ under the CommsAlliance Telecommunications Consumer Protections Code 628:2007 (the “TCP Code”) ?

The answer has some pretty serious consequences.

When the word ‘Consumer’ is used, one usually thinks mum, dad and the kids, right ? Well, its potentially more like mum, dad, the kids, the local milk bar operator, the local accountant, the local builder and the local solicitor, just to name a few under the TCP Code. So this puts a heap of contracts for telecommunications services into the contracts with ‘Consumers’ pile.
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