Business & commercial

Terms & conditions for Australian businesses.

Your terms and conditions are the contract you rely on with every customer, whether they read them or not. CMK Legal drafts trading terms, website terms of use, online sale terms and privacy policies for Victorian businesses, enforceable, compliant with Australian Consumer Law, and written so a customer can actually understand them.

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Solicitor-drafted

Documents drafted for your business, not downloaded and renamed.

Practical timeframes

First draft typically within 5 business days of your instructions.

Fixed fee, quoted first

Fixed fee quoted up front for the full document set.

Australian commercial law

Australian Consumer Law, Privacy Act, Spam Act and PPSA.

What your terms and conditions need to do.

Trading terms govern how you sell: scope of what is supplied, quotes and their validity, price and GST, payment terms and interest, credit accounts and personal guarantees, delivery, title and risk, retention of title and PPSR rights, warranties, limitation of liability, cancellation and dispute resolution.

Website and online terms cover a different set of risks: acceptance at checkout, pricing errors, delivery and returns, subscription and auto-renewal disclosure, account terms, acceptable use, intellectual property in your content, third-party links and disclaimers. If you take payments online you also need refund and returns terms that sit correctly alongside consumer guarantees.

Alongside them sits privacy. If the Privacy Act applies to your business, you need a privacy policy and a collection notice covering what personal information you collect, why, who you disclose it to, overseas disclosure, cookies and analytics, access and correction rights, and how a complaint is handled. Getting these documents drafted together avoids the common problem of three inconsistent documents on one website.

Terms only bind a customer if they were brought to their attention before the contract was formed. A link in the website footer is usually not enough for onerous clauses: acceptance needs to be built into the quote, order form or checkout.

What good terms actually deliver.

You get paid

Clear payment terms, interest on overdue accounts, recovery costs, credit application and guarantee documents, and retention of title supported by a PPSR registration.

Your liability is contained

Warranty scope defined, consequential loss excluded, liability capped where the law permits, and consumer guarantees handled correctly instead of purportedly excluded.

They survive scrutiny

Drafted against the unfair contract terms regime, which now carries significant penalties for standard form contracts with consumers and small businesses.

They are properly incorporated

We set out how the terms are presented and accepted, on quotes, order forms, credit applications or at checkout, so they form part of the contract every time.

You need these documents if.

  • You sell goods or services to customers on standard terms
  • You are launching a website, app or online store
  • You offer credit accounts to trade customers
  • You take subscriptions, deposits or recurring payments
  • You collect customer personal information or use analytics and cookies
  • Your current terms were copied from another business
  • Your terms have not been reviewed since the unfair contract terms reforms
  • You are chasing unpaid invoices and cannot find the terms you rely on

If you cannot say how a customer agreed to your terms, you may not have any. That is the first thing a court, and a debtor's lawyer, will ask about.

How we prepare your terms.

  1. 01

    Scoping call

    What you sell, to whom, how orders are placed and paid, and the problems you have run into before.

  2. 02

    Document set decided

    Trading terms, website terms, online sale terms, credit application, guarantee and privacy policy as needed.

  3. 03

    Drafting

    Written for your business and your customers, in plain English rather than recycled boilerplate.

  4. 04

    Compliance review

    Checked against Australian Consumer Law, the unfair contract terms regime, the Privacy Act and the Spam Act.

  5. 05

    Incorporation advice

    How and where the terms must be presented and accepted so they bind the customer every time.

  6. 06

    Rollout and review

    Final documents delivered ready to publish, with a recommended review point as your business changes.

Transparent fees for terms & conditions.

We quote a fixed fee for the document set after a short scoping call, typically trading terms, website terms and a privacy policy as a package, with credit applications, guarantees and online sale terms priced as add-ons. Updates and annual reviews are quoted separately and cost far less than the first draft.

Request a fixed-fee quote

FAQs

Terms & conditions FAQs.

Still unsure? Call us on (03) 9008 7224 and speak to a lawyer, not a call centre.

Can I just copy terms from another website?
It is a bad idea on two counts. Copied terms are usually protected by copyright, and they are drafted for someone else's business, jurisdiction and risk profile. The clauses that matter most, payment, title, liability, termination, are precisely the ones that will not fit, and you will only find out when you need them.
How do I make sure my terms are binding?
The customer must have reasonable notice of the terms before the contract is formed and must accept them. In practice that means referencing them on quotes and order forms, requiring a tick-box or signature, and keeping a record of the version in force at the time. A footer link alone is rarely enough for onerous clauses.
Can I exclude consumer guarantees?
No. Australian Consumer Law guarantees, acceptable quality, fitness for purpose, matching description, cannot be excluded, restricted or modified, and claiming otherwise is itself a breach. Well-drafted terms acknowledge the guarantees and then limit liability to the extent the law allows.
What are unfair contract terms and what is the penalty?
In standard form contracts with consumers and small businesses, a term that causes a significant imbalance, is not reasonably necessary to protect a legitimate interest and would cause detriment can be declared void. Since the November 2023 reforms, proposing or relying on such a term also exposes the business to substantial civil penalties.
Do I need a privacy policy?
If your business has annual turnover above the threshold, or falls into a category the Privacy Act covers regardless of turnover, health service providers, businesses trading in personal information and others, you must have a clearly expressed and up-to-date policy. Many smaller businesses adopt one voluntarily because platforms, insurers and customers now expect it.
How often should terms be reviewed?
Every couple of years, and immediately whenever your offering, pricing model or the law changes. The unfair contract terms reforms and the ongoing Privacy Act review mean many businesses are trading on documents that no longer reflect current law.

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