Navigating the Risks in Contracts with Customers and Suppliers– a recorded lunchtime online conference

Duration: Approximately 2.5 Hours

Hear from the experts at this online conference. You can watch it on your computer or on your portable electronic device from anywhere.

The conference will be based on our highly successful video webinar technology: there'll be a chairperson and presentations.

One registration can be shared by colleagues within the same firm utilising the same login.

THE PROGRAM

Session 1: Business Beware: Update on the Australian Consumer Law Reforms

This session provides an update on changes to the Australian Consumer law. This session brings you up to date with the latest developments and the implications for commercial lawyers and their clients, including:-

• Change in definition of 'consumer' effective from 1^st July 2021
• What do the changes mean for suppliers?
• Changes to the mandatory consumer guarantees
• Case study – faulty TVs and the ACCC case against LG: implications and lessons
• ACCC push to outlaw all 'unfair trading practices'
• Recent decision in Quantum expanding the scope of unconscionable conduct
• How the ACL has fared during COVID

Session 2: Unfair Terms in Small Business Contracts

This session looks at what protections are available when you are faced with a contract containing unfair business terms. This session looks at what they are and other recent changes, including:

• Unfair terms protection for small business – an overview
• What is a small business contract?
• The operation of standard form contracts – where do they fit in?
• Change in definition of small business
• When are unfair contract terms applicable?
• What constitutes an unfair contract term?
• Contracts and terms not covered
• Remedies for unfair contract terms -damages for consequential loss
• Powers of ASIC in relation to unfair contract terms
• Penalties regime for unfair contract terms
• Case studies – examples of unfair contract terms, including ASIC v Bank of Queensland [2021] FCA 957

Session 3: Interpretation of Commercial Contracts – Meaning, Intention and More

What many see as rules of interpretation may better belong in the fiction category. Many misconceptions prevail. This session looks at correct rules for interpreting commercial contracts, including:

• Construction of the contract – what is admissible and what is not
• When can you access extrinsic material to address an ambiguity?
• Looking at pre and post contractual conduct – what is permissible?
• Identification of terms in partly written and partly oral contracts
• Implying terms into contracts – is there anything new here?
• Is there such a thing as a ‘reasonable businessperson’ in determining meaning?
• Determining the meaning of words in the contract
• Industry specific terms of art – meaning and effect
• Reading the contract as a whole – obtaining a commercially meaningful construction