Unfair Contract Term Laws of Australia

Standard form contracts dominate modern commerce, and with them, unfair contract term laws have become one of the most important and fast‑evolving areas of Australian law. Expanded in 2016, strengthened again in 2021, and fundamentally transformed in 2023 with the introduction of penalties and sanctions, these laws now sit at the centre of contract drafting, advisory practice and regulatory enforcement.

Written for in‑house counsel who draft and review standard form contracts, private practice solicitors who advise on them, regulators who bring enforcement proceedings regarding unfair terms, contract law students, and judicial officers, Unfair Contract Term Laws of Australia is an indispensable guide to an area of law that now affects almost every contract in Australia.

Features

• Drawing together all legislation and case law to date, provides a clear, coherent framework for understanding how the regime operates in practice

• Goes beyond the statutes to examine closely related doctrines − including the interpretation of standard form contracts, accessorial liability, the liability of government entities under contract, parallel statutory regimes and various clauses such as exclusion of liability and restraints of trade − areas that are essential to a meaningful unfairness analysis but rarely addressed elsewhere

• Also addresses the emerging penalties regime, the limits of tribunal jurisdiction, and the true precedential value of key decisions, noting where outcomes were reached by consent or without contest

Related Titles

• Peden, Reede & Leung, Good Faith in The Performance of Contracts, 2nd edition

• Sharpe, Unconscionable Conduct in Australian Consumer and Commercial Contracts