The Insurance Contracts Act (ICA) has been described as one of the most significant and comprehensive pieces of consumer protection legislation ever enacted in Australia. Fundamental changes have recently been introduced, but it has also left matters silent on other fronts. The various provisions begin at different times between 28 June 2013 and December 2015, in order to allow insurers some time to amend their internal policies and procedures to take account of the new changes, many of which apply to general commercial policies. The majority of the provisions also only apply if the policy is entered into after the provision has commenced. It is imperative that brokers and underwriters are made aware of these changes.

The NSW Court of Appeal has decided that a breach of section 62 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 1996 (the mandatory obligation for a strata plan to maintain the common property) does not give rise to an action for damages for breach of its statutory duty.

From the start of the new year  there are to be more changes to the Privacy Act 1988 which could be relevant to you and your business. You will need to consider your own privacy compliance arrangements to make sure they don’t leave you at risk.

The Privacy Act changes commence in March 2014. 

If your credit application, privacy policy or terms and conditions of trade do not property take the new amendments into account, you may find yourself in danger of breaching the new Act. The changes have imposed new credit reporting provisions, and have given enforcement powers to the privacy Commissioner. 

It is no longer certain that an employee injured on a journey between home and work will receive  worker’s compensation benefits.

For compensation to be payable, the NSW Act now requires that there be a ‘real and substantial connection’ between the employment and the incident in which the injury occurred.

Quite frequently business owners who have decided to enter into various arrangements for the distribution or licensing of their goods or services discover that the agreement reached is in law a “franchise agreement” and that they have unwittingly become a franchisor subject to additional regulation and obligations. If an agreement is a “franchise agreement” then there are certain legal requirements including mandatory disclosure prior to the grant of the franchise, procedures for transfer and termination and resolution of disputes.

A US Judge has found that organisations who use images posted on Twitter for commercial purposes will infringe the copyright of the owner of those photographs.

The Washington Post and Agence France – Presse had argued that once the pictures appeared on Twitter they were freely available and that Twitter’s terms of service granted it the right to use the photographs. Accordingly, they have published the photographs without permission from or payment to the professional photographer who took them.

What must you do when a contract requires you to use “best endeavours”, “reasonable endeavours” or “all reasonable endeavours”?  Are your contractual obligations for “best endeavours” or “best reasonable endeavours” higher than those for “reasonable endeavours”?

Our health, aged care and life sciences team discuss a range of topical health, life sciences, medico-legal, aged care and retirement living, social media, privacy, franchising and employment issues. To read the latest copy of the Health Law Bulletin, click here

Hospital operators, invest in expensive medical equipment, such as linear accelerators. The recent case of Re Cancer Care Institute of Australia Pty Limited [2013] NSWSC 37 highlights the issue of protecting ownership in medical equipment.