Has anyone else been able to make any sense of the replacement to the Trade Practices Act? Being the Competition and Consumer Act of 2010

I've just skimmed over the whole 511 page document and none of it is like any other statute of Law I've read.

I'm trying to find the aspect of it which I will need to be aware of yet I haven't been able to make heads for tails of anything yet !

If anyone has had any better experiences with this I'd like to hear from you.

No one has any input for this one ?
I would have expected some spam at least !

Hi Brendan,

I was at a conference a month or so ago, there was some discussion about this. I've got a few pages of detail about it printed but it's not very detailed, I did notice a reference to the following web page that might be of use, the general consenus from what I took in is that it's virtually the same however the main changes were discussed, and I think they're covered here: Allens Arthur Robinson: Publication: Competition & Consumer Law Quarterly

From my frail memory there were significant changes to consumer laws and regualtions surrounding selling up shop etc.

Not sure if that will be any help at all but good luck with it?

I'm assuming this is just a replacement to state based laws and consolidation of the Commonwealth TPA which just applied to companies previously? Now the new laws apply to trusts, sole traders, companies, or something. I'm not sure as its not something I need to worry about anymore

You should be seeking advice on this from your legal advisers

You guys do everything from VOIP / Voice to hosting so their is a larger cope of a regulatory environment for your business vs just hosting and domain names.

I'll have a Gander at that, Thanks. I was trying to find in simple language the changes in the law without all the legal Jargon your average person doesn't understand.

For QLD, It's bringing it in line with NSW and VIC.
I think there is the Commonwealth law but there is also still state law, This is something else I'm not 100% on.

I consider my request far to basic to both getting legal advise for it, I'll continue my online research until I really hit a dead end.

Voice Solutions yes, Very little general hosting in compairson.
ACMA is who you need to deal with for Voice related services.

I had a brief look through that web page, I am not really sure that it has a lot to do with smaller web hosting opperaters, perhaps the stuff regarding unfair contracts would, but most of the changes seam to be concerning companies and mergers and the like.

You're quite right, any ASIC registered company is impacted by the changes in some way, this is more companies stuff than sole trader type.

This is the section which I'm interested in !

If you click on the "Launch Webcast" button on this page you can get a good general overview.

The Australian Consumer Law - be prepared | Lobby

The focus is on mostly on B2C rather than B2B, but they explain the situations where the code covers B2B.

Thanks Mike !

Local web hosting companies should seriously evaluate their T&Cs with respect to the unfair contract laws that came into play mid last year. I'm currently disputing the validity of a 15 day cancellation clause in a web hosting company's T&C (company name withheld to protect the dodgy), alleging that it is not required to protect their legitimate business interests, but rather allows the company to charge for unwanted and unutilised services.

You'll find that is pretty standard, It protects Web Hosts from attracting persons who are likely to chop and change providers.

No different then a mobile tel expecting you to settle your account if your wanting to change providers.

Also I feel there is a mass difference between General T&C's and the type of contract law they suggest in this new Act.

It is different. The mobile telco locks me in because it's just not practical to take my phone away and give it to someone else. A server, on the other hand, can be reprovisioned in minutes.

It's called a standard form contract and is definitely covered by the new laws.

That's a rather large generalization, Depending on the server is mightn't be so practical!

At the end of the day if you don't like the T&C's go somewhere else, You seam to like U.S based providers alot

That's exactly the arrogant attitude these laws address wrt standard form contracts. Your point of view has been deprecated.