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Coverage

Subscriptions

Australia — Australian Consumer Law unfair contract terms and misleading conduct

NationalAUDerived or secondary source

Australia

Rule id
subscription.au-acl
Version
1.0.0
In force from
November 9, 2023
Last read against its sources
August 5, 2026
Countries bound
Australia

In plain language

What this regime says.

Australia has no automatic-renewal statute, but since November 2023 an unfair term in a standard-form consumer contract is not just void — proposing or relying on it is contravening conduct with civil penalties. A subscription that renews automatically and is hard to exit is a strong unfair-term case, and charges taken after cancellation are unsolicited services you owe nothing for.

Who is covered

Consumers in Australia, including where the business is overseas but sells into Australia.

What you get

The unfair term declared void, refund of charges taken after cancellation, and damages for loss caused by misleading conduct under s.236.

Where claims go wrong

  • Assuming "you agreed to the terms" is an answer. Under the unfair contract terms regime it is not.
  • Reporting only to the ACCC, which does not resolve individual disputes. Use your state fair trading office too.
  • Not cancelling the recurring payment authority with the bank.
The official claim route

Authority

Every citation,
with its pinpoint.

A claim that cites “EU law” gets filed. A claim that cites Article 7(1)(c) gets answered. These are the exact coordinates this entry rests on.
  1. Australian Consumer Law, ss.23-28 (unfair contract terms)Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth), Schedule 2s.24 — a term is unfair if it would cause a significant imbalance in the parties' rights, is not reasonably necessary to protect legitimate interests, and would cause detriment if relied on; s.25 includes terms permitting one party but not the other to renew or vary the contract
  2. Australian Consumer Law, ss.18 and 29Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth), Schedule 2s.18 — misleading or deceptive conduct; s.29(1)(i)-(m) — false or misleading representations about price, and about the existence or effect of a right or remedy
  3. Australian Consumer Law, ss.39-43Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth), Schedule 2s.40 — a person must not assert a right to payment for unsolicited services; s.41 — liability of the recipient of unsolicited services is nil
  4. ACCC — reporting a consumer issueAustralian Competition and Consumer Commission

Sources

Where a figure is indexed, converted or published by a regulator rather than fixed in the instrument, the provenance is recorded separately. Anything marked as a modelled estimate is exactly that — a model, not a statutory number.

What it imposes

Clocks, defences and the ladder.

A rule module builds these while it evaluates, because a limitation period depends on which forum is open to you. What follows is the structure this regime produces — deliberately with no dates and no figures, because those belong to your facts rather than to the law.

The clocks it starts

  • ACL damages claim (6 years)Fatal if misseds.236(2) requires an action for damages for misleading or deceptive conduct to be commenced within six years of the day on which the cause of action accrued.Australian Consumer Law, ss.18 and 29 — s.18 — misleading or deceptive conduct; s.29(1)(i)-(m) — false or misleading representations about price, and about the existence or effect of a right or remedyLimitation period

What it entitles you to, beyond money

  • An unfair term is voids.23 makes an unfair term in a standard-form consumer contract void, and the rest of the contract continues to bind only so far as it can operate without it. A term you are told you agreed to may simply not exist.s.24 — a term is unfair if it would cause a significant imbalance in the parties' rights, is not reasonably necessary to protect legitimate interests, and would cause detriment if relied on; s.25 includes terms permitting one party but not the other to renew or vary the contract
  • No liability for unsolicited servicess.41: a person who receives unsolicited services is not liable to make any payment for them, and s.40 prohibits the supplier from even asserting a right to payment.s.40 — a person must not assert a right to payment for unsolicited services; s.41 — liability of the recipient of unsolicited services is nil

What the other side will say

Each of these is a refusal this regime lets a counterparty attempt, paired with the answer to it. Reading them before you write is worth more than any amount of polish on the letter itself.

"You agreed to the terms"

high likelihood

The business relies on the consumer having accepted the contract.

What answers it

The unfair contract terms regime applies precisely to standard-form contracts that consumers accept without negotiation. s.27 presumes a contract is standard form unless the business proves otherwise, and acceptance is not an answer — the whole point of s.23 is that an unfair term is void notwithstanding agreement.

Australian Consumer Law, ss.23-28 (unfair contract terms) — s.24 — a term is unfair if it would cause a significant imbalance in the parties' rights, is not reasonably necessary to protect legitimate interests, and would cause detriment if relied on; s.25 includes terms permitting one party but not the other to renew or vary the contract

"We are not an Australian company"

medium likelihood

An overseas platform says the ACL does not reach it.

What answers it

The ACL applies to conduct in trade or commerce in Australia and, through s.5 of the Competition and Consumer Act, to conduct outside Australia by bodies corporate carrying on business within Australia. Selling subscriptions to Australians is carrying on business in Australia.

Australian Consumer Law, ss.18 and 29 — s.18 — misleading or deceptive conduct; s.29(1)(i)-(m) — false or misleading representations about price, and about the existence or effect of a right or remedy

Where to take it next

  1. Written cancellation and refund demandCancel in writing, demand refund of every charge taken afterwards, and say that continuing to bill is an assertion of a right to payment for unsolicited services contrary to s.40. Name the terms you say are unfair under ss.24 and 25.Claim directtypically 14 days
  2. Cancel the payment authority with your bankA recurring card payment can be cancelled by instructing your bank; under the ePayments Code the bank must act on that instruction and may not simply refer you back to the merchant. Dispute the post-cancellation charges at the same time.Claim directtypically 14 days
  3. ACCC and your state or territory fair trading officeThe ACCC takes reports and sets enforcement priorities from them; state and territory fair trading offices additionally mediate individual disputes, which the ACCC does not. Report to both.Regulatortypically 45 daysofficial page
  4. State civil and administrative tribunalVCAT, NCAT, QCAT and their equivalents hear consumer claims cheaply, quickly and without lawyers. An unfair-term or unsolicited-services argument is well within their ordinary work.Small claimstypically 120 days

Documents

What this regime can produce.

Every one of these is a document you send yourself, in your own name. Duesday never writes to anybody on your behalf and is never anyone’s agent.

The same claim type elsewhere

EU Consumer Rights Directive — withdrawal, order-button and inertia-selling rulesEUSupranational — 30 countriesDirective 2011/83/EU (Consumer Rights Directive)Confidence: highNorway — Angrerettloven right of withdrawalNONational — NorwayLov om opplysningsplikt og angrerett (angrerettloven), LOV-2014-06-20-27Confidence: highRussia — Consumer Rights Protection Law arts. 26.1 and 32RUNational — RussiaЗакон РФ от 07.02.1992 № 2300-1 «О защите прав потребителей», ст. 32Confidence: mediumSwitzerland — Code of Obligations right of revocation (and the online gap)CHNational — SwitzerlandSwiss Code of Obligations, arts. 40a–40fConfidence: mediumTürkiye — Law 6502 distance contracts and the Subscription Contracts RegulationTRNational — TürkiyeTüketicinin Korunması Hakkında Kanun No. 6502, arts. 48 and 52Confidence: mediumUK Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 (and the not-yet-commenced DMCCA subscription regime)GBNational — United KingdomConsumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 (SI 2013/3134)Confidence: highCalifornia Automatic Renewal Law (Bus. & Prof. Code §§ 17600-17606, as amended by AB 2863)US-CASub-national — United StatesCalifornia Business and Professions Code §§ 17600-17606Confidence: highCanada — provincial consumer protection acts and the federal Competition ActCANational — CanadaLoi sur la protection du consommateur, RLRQ c. P-40.1 (Quebec)Confidence: medium

Other rights in the same countries

Australia — Australia Post compensation and Express Post guaranteeAUNational — AustraliaAustralian Postal Corporation Act 1989 and Australia Post’s Terms and ConditionsConfidence: lowAustralia — Australian Consumer Law consumer guaranteesAUNational — AustraliaAustralian Consumer Law, s 60 (guarantee as to due care and skill)Confidence: highAustralia — ePayments Code and Australian Consumer LawAUNational — AustraliaePayments Code (ASIC), Chapter CConfidence: mediumAustralia — Medicare, bulk billing, the MBS and informed financial consentAUNational — AustraliaHealth Insurance Act 1973 (Cth), s. 20AConfidence: mediumAustralia — Part IVA representative proceedingsAUNational — AustraliaFederal Court of Australia Act 1976 (Cth), Part IVAConfidence: mediumAustralia — single price rule, ACL s.48AUNational — AustraliaAustralian Consumer Law, s.48 (Competition and Consumer Act 2010, Sch. 2)Confidence: mediumAustralia — State operator passenger charters (NSW TrainLink, V/Line, Queensland Rail) and the Australian Consumer LawAUNational — AustraliaAustralian Consumer Law (Competition and Consumer Act 2010, Schedule 2) and the state operators' customer chartersConfidence: lowAustralia — unclaimed money held by ASIC, and lost superannuation held by the ATOAUNational — AustraliaBanking Act 1959 (Cth), s. 69Confidence: medium

Does this one reach your facts?

The engine runs every regime that could apply at once and reconciles them, rather than making you guess which page to read.

Run your factsBack to the catalogue

Not a law firm. Not legal advice. You send it yourself. This page describes a law; it is not advice about your situation and no outcome is promised.