Commercial · Australia
Website Terms and Conditions Template (Australia)
Australian consumer guarantees cannot be excluded, and since 2023 an unfair term in a standard form contract carries a penalty rather than merely being void. Terms copied from an overseas site fail on both counts.
What this document does
The agreement nobody reads and everybody relies on
Website terms are a standard form contract by definition — offered to every user on the same basis, with no negotiation. That is precisely the category the unfair contract terms regime was built to police, which makes copied-in boilerplate a worse idea now than it was three years ago.
What’s included
Clauses in this template
- Acceptance, eligibility and account obligations
- Payment, subscription and refund terms
- Liability limited to the extent the ACL permits — not excluded
- Acceptable use and content standards
- Intellectual property and any user licence grant
- Variation, suspension and termination
- Governing law and jurisdiction
The law that applies
Australian Consumer Law and the unfair contract terms regime
Consumer guarantees cannot be excluded. The Australian Consumer Law implies guarantees into supplies of goods and services that no contract term can remove. A blanket exclusion of liability is void to that extent, and stating it as though it binds the customer can itself amount to a misleading representation.
Unfair terms now attract penalties. From 9 November 2023, including an unfair term in a standard form contract exposes the supplier to civil penalties — for a company, up to the greater of $50 million, three times the benefit obtained, or 30% of adjusted turnover during the breach period. For an individual, up to $2.5 million.
The small business net is wide. The regime applies to small business contracts where a party employs fewer than 100 people or has turnover under $10 million. The previous contract-value caps are gone. In practice most B2B website terms are now caught.
What goes wrong
Pitfalls we see in practice
A blanket liability exclusion
“We exclude all liability to the maximum extent permitted by law” is fine. “We exclude all liability” is not — it is void against the consumer guarantees, and presenting it to customers as binding is itself a risk. The distinction is one clause of drafting and it is the single most common defect in Australian website terms.
Unilateral variation and automatic renewal
Terms letting the supplier change the deal at will, or roll a subscription over without meaningful notice, are the classic examples the regulator points to. They were always vulnerable; since November 2023 they carry penalties. If you need them commercially, they need to be paired with notice periods and a right to exit.
Terms copied from a US or UK site
Overseas boilerplate references the wrong statutes, imports concepts Australian law does not use, and omits the consumer guarantees entirely. It also usually specifies the wrong governing law, which means a dispute starts with an argument about where it should be heard.
No governing law or jurisdiction clause
Without one, a dispute with an interstate or overseas customer begins with a fight about forum before anyone reaches the merits. It is one sentence and it removes an entire category of preliminary argument.
Questions
Frequently asked
Can I exclude liability entirely in my website terms?
No. The consumer guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law cannot be contracted out of. You can limit liability to the extent the law permits — commonly by capping remedies to resupply or refund where that is available — but a blanket exclusion is void and asserting it can be misleading conduct in its own right.
What makes a contract term unfair?
Broadly, that it causes a significant imbalance in the parties’ rights, is not reasonably necessary to protect the supplier’s legitimate interests, and would cause detriment if relied on. Unilateral variation, automatic renewal without notice, and one-sided termination rights are the recurring examples.
Do I need different terms for business customers?
Not necessarily different documents, but different assumptions. Since November 2023 the unfair contract terms regime covers small business contracts where a party has fewer than 100 employees or under $10 million turnover, so most business customers are inside the regime rather than outside it.
Legally reviewed by [REVIEWER NAME], practising Australian solicitor — [DATE]. [DRAFT: confirm reviewer and date before publishing.]