Peter Sise, ‘The Unfair Contract Term Provisions: What’s Transparency Got to do with it?’

Abstract
Provisions in the Australian Consumer Law allow a court to declare an ‘unfair’ term in a ‘consumer contract’ or a ‘small business contract’ void. When determining whether a term is unfair, a court must consider the extent to which it is transparent. Transparency is important since it is one of only two factors that a court must consider when making this determination. This article will examine whether transparency is logically relevant to the legislative test for whether a term is unfair. It will argue that it is of limited relevance and hence should not be a mandatory consideration for determining unfairness. It will then consider several alternatives to making transparency a mandatory consideration.

Peter Sise, The Unfair Contract Term Provisions: What’s Transparency Got to do with it?, QUT Law Review, volume 17, no 1, pp 160-173, October 2017.

First posted 2017-10-20 07:06:45

Leave a Reply