Terms & Conditions

Ensure your business is compliant with Australian Law

T&Cs include all sale, delivery, return and refund policies, and exist primarily to protect you from consumers who claim to suffer loss from using your products and services, and to serve to avoid any misunderstandings between you and your customers.

If you’re a small Australian business owner, especially one with an eCommerce website or online store, and you sell products or services online (either yourself or on behalf of others), it’s your responsibility to have T&Cs that comply with the latest Australian Consumer Law. In fact, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) regularly checks websites to determine if businesses are breaching the law. If they’re not, penalties and fines can be issued.

In your T&Cs, you must include a statement that you comply with Australian Consumer Law, details of your guarantee and the process by which you’ll handle refunds, repairs or replacement of faulty products. Additionally, it’s recommended you include details of shipping options and estimated delivery times, payment terms, cancellation policies and warnings deterring other businesses or individuals from stealing your content. Importantly, your T&Cs should be written in plain English, unambiguous and be positioned in an easily accessible area of your site.

Website visitors will often check your T&Cs before making a purchase, so apart from being a legal requirement, it’s beneficial to include them on your site and demonstrates to your customers that you’re conducting a professional operation.

It’s illegal to simply copy T&Cs from another website, as you are breaching another company’s copyright, and the ACCC now fines businesses that publish duplicate information which doesn’t pertain to their unique operation.

At Lawbase, we strongly advise small businesses not to use generic T&Cs templates or generators. Since you will probably have specific policies or risks unique to your business, your terms may not be compliant with Australian Law, and we can provide you with tailored advice and education about every detail you need to include to avoid future legal ramifications. If you’ve got any questions about T&Cs, we’d love to help you out.