Home featured Featured Legal Opinion Featured Six things you should know about ‘unfair contract’ law Lachlan McKnight December 11, 2013 In the vast majority of cases once you enter into a contract you are locked into its terms. However, there is a way out: you may be able to claim the contract is void because it is “ unfair ”. Unfair contract laws operate to protect ‘weaker parties’ from unfair terms which will cause them serious detriment. Here are the six things you should know about unfair contract laws, which may be helpful to your business. Unfair contract laws only cover a small number of contracts? Unfair contract laws cover only some contracts, in particular contracts where all terms and conditions of the contract are set by just one of the parties and the other party isn’t really in a position to negotiate those terms. Contracts covered by unfair contract laws are known as ‘consumer contracts’. This means the typical contracts covered by the laws are consumers and more specifically for the supply of goods and services to consumers in many industries, including: telecommunications contracts electricity and gas cars loans fitness What is a ‘consumer contract’? Well, it’s not always 100 per cent clear whether a contract is a “consumer contract” – but if a court answers yes to all these questions, they are likely to hold the agreement to be a consumer contract: Does one party have all the bargaining power? Was the contract prepared by one party and