The Australian Automotive Dealer Association (AADA) is welcoming calls for thresholds governing unfair contract terms to be revisited.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is recommending that the thresholds for small businesses be revisited in the upcoming review of the business-to-business unfair contract term regime.

“The ACCC is right in stating that most franchised new car dealers do not qualify under these thresholds due to the high value of their stock and number of employees,” says AADA chief executive David Blackhall.

“New car dealers are locked into agreements with vehicle manufacturers which have unfair contract terms, such as unilateral variation clauses. However, due to the current small business threshholds, most of our members do not enjoy protections against these terms,” he said.

“We look forward to participating in the Government’s review of the unfair contract term law in the coming months,” he said.

The AADA is also advocating for the establishment of an Automotive Industry Code of Conduct to regulate behaviour between new car dealers and offshore vehicle manufacturers.

Source: AADA backs ACCC’s unfair contract terms comments

05 Sept 2018