Smart Business Bulletin May 2021

Welcome to the May 2021 edition of the Office of Fair Trading’s (OFT) Smart Business Bulletin, linking Queensland businesses with fair trading information and tips.

Features

It's Small Business Month!
Business education services
Check In Qld app now compulsory for all hospitality venues
Don't let bad contact details cause you to miss your licence fee deadline
Free mental health program for small business owners
Mother's Day gift cards
Repeat used car offender sentenced to jail

It's Small Business Month!

This month is Queensland Small Business Month (QSBM 2021) and it’s a good time for a refresher on how your small business is protected by the Australian Consumer Law (ACL).

Product and service guarantees

You should be aware of the consumer guarantees under the ACL, but do you realise how they apply to your purchases?

The definition of consumer products and services are those sold, hired or leased that are:

under $40,000
over $40,000 that are normally bought for personal or household use.

From 1 July 2021, this dollar value will increase to $100,000.

Business vehicles and trailers are also covered, irrespective of cost, provided they are mainly used to transport goods.

The seller is obliged to provide the consumer guarantees outlined in the ACL regardless of any other warranties they give to you or sell you.

If a supplier fails to meet any of these guarantees, you have the right to a remedy, such as a repair, replacement or refund, cancellation of a service, and compensation for damages and loss.

Unfair contract terms

The ACL’s unfair contract term rules are designed to protect consumers and small business from unfair terms in standard form contracts.

Standard form contracts are the pre-prepared contracts such as those you enter into when you buy a phone or internet plan, book a flight, or have your electricity connected. They are contracts offered on a take it or leave it basis, with no opportunity to negotiate.

A contract term may be deemed to be unfair if it is skewed too far to the benefit of the supplier. Examples of terms that may be unfair are:

terms that enable the supplier (but not the buyer) to avoid or limit their obligations under the contract
terms that enable the supplier (but not the buyer) to terminate the contract
terms that penalise the buyer (but not the supplier) for breaching or terminating the contract
terms that enable the supplier (but not the buyer) to vary the terms of the contract.

If you are a small business, you should look out for these types of potentially unfair terms:

automatic renewal terms binding you to subsequent contracts unless you cancel the contract within a certain timeframe
terms allowing the supplier to unilaterally alter the terms and conditions of the contract
terms that broadly limit the other party’s liability towards you, or which require you to indemnify a trader in an unreasonably broad range of circumstances
terms that allow the supplier to cancel or terminate your agreement without cause.

If you think a term in a standard form contract is unfair, you should ask the provider to amend or remove the term.

Only a court can decide if a term is unfair, so if you can’t resolve the matter with the provider, you should obtain legal advice.

If the court finds a term is unfair, the term becomes void, as if it never existed. The contract itself will remain valid provided it can still operate without the unfair term.

For information on the Australian Consumer Law and how it applies to your business, visit www.qld.gov.au/fairtrading.

For information on Queensland Small Business Month, or to check for events happening near you, visit www.business.qld.gov.au/qsbm.

Business education services

Did you know we provide education services to traders and licensees?

One way we help traders learn about their rights and responsibilities under the Australian Consumer Law and the industry-specific legislation we administer is through our annual proactive education and compliance programs.

As part of the programs, we help licensees in the industries we regulate by hosting educational forums, presenting at industry conferences and meetings and by conducting compliance visits.

These visits offer opportunities to discuss a trader's business practices to help ensure they do not breach fair trading laws, and to give guidance to encourage compliance with the law.

We also visit traders of all kinds across the state to provide one-on-one information and advice.

We know the vast majority of traders want to do the right thing by their customers, and that a little information in plain English can go a long way to helping them build and maintain a good reputation in their community.

For information on our proactive compliance; education and engagement; and regional and remote outreach programs; or to check out our online business resources, visit www.qld.gov.au/fairtrading.

Check-in-Qld app now compulsory for all hospitality venues

It is now compulsory for all Queensland hospitality businesses to use the Check In Qld app when signing in patrons to their premises.

This includes:

retail food services including cafes, restaurants and fast-food outlets. This covers operations that may be part of another business, e.g. a restaurant in a casino or a café in a gallery, or a bar or restaurant at a theme park
pubs, licensed clubs, RSL clubs, function centres, bars, wineries, distilleries and microbreweries and licensed premises in hotels
nightclubs.

Excluded from the mandatory list above are food courts and club canteens.

While the app is not compulsory for other industries, it is a fantastic, free resource for all businesses to help keep you and your customers safe without all the administration responsibilities. It allows contact tracers to determine if a known COVID-19 case has visited your business while infectious, and conversely, in the event of a breakout, determine the source of the infection.

Don't let bad contact details cause you to miss your licence fee deadline

If you are a liquor licensee, the Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation (OLGR) will send an assessment notice for your annual liquor licence fees in late June, so it is important that your contact details are up to date by 1 June.

You can check and update your details, including your postal and email addresses, by logging in to the OLGR Client Portal, or by emailing OLGRlicensing@justice.qld.gov.au

If you have any difficulty using the portal or lodging online applications, want to enquire about payment plans or need further information, you can contact OLGR's Customer Support team on 1300 072 322.

Free mental health program for small business owners

NewAccess for Small Business Owners is a free and confidential mental health program, developed by Beyond Blue to support small business owners.

Running a small business can involve stress and pressure from many different directions and a lot of small business owners feel that COVID-19 negatively affected their mental health. If not addressed, these demands can sometimes raise a risk of severe or longer-lasting mental health challenges down the track.

Over six sessions, coaches with a small business background will work with you to overcome difficult issues, providing you with practical skills to manage stress and get you back to feeling like yourself.

At your first appointment your coach will complete an initial assessment with you and develop a program tailored to your individual needs.

NewAccess for Small Business Owners is available nationally by phone or video call.

No doctor’s referral or mental health treatment plan is required. For more information visit Beyond Blue.

Mother's Day gift cards

May brings Mother’s Day, a favourite day of celebration for many people and one that often means the purchase of gift cards as a treat for busy mums. If your business sells gift cards or vouchers now is the perfect time to make sure your processes have kept up with the law.

Gift cards and vouchers now have a mandatory minimum expiry period of three years. The period begins on the day the gift card is sold.
The expiry date must be prominently displayed on the card.
Fees such as activation fees, account keeping fees and balance enquiry fees, cannot be charged after the card has been sold.
Any terms and conditions must be clear. If your business has rules about what gift vouchers can’t be used to purchase, or about which periods of time they can and can’t be used, these must be advised upfront in easily understood terms.

For more information visit www.qld.gov.au/fairtrading.

Repeat used car offender sentenced to jail

A Gold Coast woman has been sentenced to three months in jail, suspended for 18 months, after being found guilty for the third time of unlicensed motor dealing.

Emilia Lloyd, who has also used the names Milka Bibelova and Emma Kim in online car advertisements, was fined $20,000 for unlicensed motor dealing and making false representation about the mileage of vehicles in February 2018, and $6,000 for unlicensed motor dealing in April 2019.

Within two months of the April 2019 court appearance, Ms Lloyd began advertising used vehicles for sale on multiple online trading platforms. In fact, she placed more than 50 separate advertisements on websites, using three different names.

Fair Trading Executive Director Brian Bauer said the OFT would keep pursuing offenders until they got the message.

“The OFT warns anyone doing the wrong thing that our investigators will find you,” he said.

What’s in the news?

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