Time to review your customer contracts
When you have customer contracts, they must be fair under the law. Now’s a good time to review yours.
Unsure about whether your contracts comply with the Fair Trading Act? Learn about your obligations, especially before you head into the peak trading period.
You need to take special care when entering into what are referred to as ‘standard form contracts’ with customers.
These could include contracts for flights or rental accommodation, vehicle hire, gym memberships and phone deals.
These are essentially ‘take it or leave it’ contracts, where the terms of the contract have not been subject to effective negotiation between the parties.
Regularly review your contract terms to make sure they remain fair.
The terms of a standard form contract must be fair, and businesses are advised to regularly review contract terms to ensure compliance.
Because time is precious for small business owners, the Commerce Commission has prepared a set of short videos and guides to help you understand unfair contract terms and how your business can avoid them with customers.
- Top tips for writing terms and conditions(external link) — Commerce Commission New Zealand
- Why terms and conditions matter(external link) — Commerce Commission New Zealand
- When a customer breaks an agreement(external link) — Commerce Commission New Zealand
You can view more videos and read more about your obligations as a business on the Commerce Commission website.
Unfair contract terms(external link) — Commerce Commission New Zealand
With a busy season fast approaching, take the time to review your existing consumer contracts to ensure you stay on the right side of the Fair Trading Act.
All New Zealanders are better off when they are confident market participants and when businesses have the confidence that they are operating in a fair and competitive environment. The Commerce Commission promotes and enforces fair conduct and practices in trading relationships, and we help businesses to understand their obligations under the Fair Trading Act.
