Report No. 199

Section 14: Executed Contracts:

Section 14 states that the Court may grant relief in accordance with this Act in relation to a contract, notwithstanding that the contract is fully executed.

In 1993, the States Territories in Australia made the Uniform Consumer Credit Code which applies to credit agreements and it defined the word 'unjust' as in the 1980 Act, by including in the definition what is 'unconscionable, harsh or oppressive'. section 70 concerned both aspects of procedural and substantive injustice. The list of matters which the Court was to take into account under that Act is similar to section 9(2) of the 1980 Act (these are all 'procedural' in nature). The court was granted power to reopen the transaction that gave rise to the agreement, set aside wholly or partly or revise or alter the agreement.

Under the Fair Trading Act, 2003 (Victoria), the provisions were similar to UK Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations, 1999. 'Good faith' was a circumstance if it created a significant imbalance in rights and obligations of parties, to the detriment of the consumer and the Court should have regard to whether the term was individually negotiated, whether it was in a prescribed form and whether it was within the object set out in the Act.