Principles of Australian Contract Law - Case Study Example

Your name: Course name: Professors’ name: Date Overview This analysis critically reviews a brochure in order to expose some potential legal impacts that the brochure could face. To achieve this, a critical analysis of the brochure is done in light of the principles of the contract law and case laws. Some potentially unconscionable, misleading, false representation, bait advertising, and offer gifts are also analyzed with the aim of exposing consumer law contravention. Lastly, exclusions and limitations are also covered in this analysis, the rationale for this is to show the extent to which the resort is liable with respect with the contents outlined. Key information about the holiday set out in the brochure The selected brochure for this analysis is the Butlin’s Caravan Village Skegness, 2014 holiday brochure. The village caravan is set out in 100 acres piece of land with a number of attractive activities and wildlife experience. Butlin was founded in 1936 by Billy Butlin with the aim of ensuring that all visitors are entertained with a wide variety of ingredients such as the smell of fresh sea air, and caravan activities. Butlin is also famous for miles of golden sand which is upgraded to Splash Waterworld with plenty of activities to enjoy. Skegness resort also aims at exploring various activities in order to provide families with the opportunity to try something new in their every visit to the resort. The resort also offers modern holiday homes which are spacious, well equipped and fully furnished. Their kitchens are also fully fitted and spacious. Butlin is also known for its Caravans. All the caravans have three bedrooms, shower room, lounge areas, kitchens which are all designed to accommodate families with various needs. They pricing are also categorized in order to accommodate different people with varying monetary needs. The three key classes of payments available in Butlin are silver, Gold, and Gold plus. The resort also accommodates provision for young kids through their favorite character show. These characters are famous TV characters such as Mike the Knight or Angelina Ballerina. This aims at satisfying children in the resort when their parents are having fun elsewhere within the resort. The resort also offers various meal plans that focus on accommodating various needs of its visitors. The brochure also outlines all the activities available during school holiday breaks such as adventure golf, ten pin bowling, American pool, Go-Karts, and Quasar elite available under all action pass. Climbing wall, high repos, and free fall are available under adrenaline pass. The resort also offers a clearly outlined price guide with various months of the year and their respective prices with respect to the category selected, Silver, Gold, and Gold plus. A contact number is also availed for easy contact of the resort for inquiries. At the end of the brochure, basic steps of booking are also outlined as by telephone, and by visiting the Caravan village reception. Means of payments are also provided coupled with holiday insurance. Critical analysis of package using principles of contract law According to Poole (2012, p.450) in accordance with the Australian contract law, there are a number of issues that are evident in the Butlin’s Caravan Village Skegness brochure. As such, Butlin’s may be liable for the torts or the breach of contract under the Australian contract law provision. An example of this is under the unconscionable conduct which provides fairness in transactions that deal with dominant and weaker parties. In Australia, unconscionable conduct is prohibited both in equity and statute. Unconscionable conduct in equity intervenes when a party intentionally takes advantage of another party’s special disability such as illiteracy, age and lack of education or a conglomerate of other factors. In relation to this Butlin’s brochure, there are a number of offers and discounts that could potentially lead to unconscionable conduct on the part of Butlin under the Unconscionable conduct equity. Examples of this possibility in this Butlin’s brochure includes early bird discount and the other passes and activities that are not described in details, this lack of description invites misrepresentations which could be wrongfully interpreted by visitors who are aged or illiterate. The case of Commercial Bank of Australia v Amadio (1983) 151 CLR 447 is an example of misrepresentation and undue advantage taken because of lack of adequate information on the part of the plaintiff who was not aware of the consequences of signing the guarantee besides the limit of $50,000 instituted (Monaha 2001, p.14). The unwritten offers which are not clearly explained in the brochure could attract undue expectations which could lead to legal battle between the customers and the resort. The other issue that is clear from the Butlin’s brochure is the fact that offer prices and gifts which are under conditions and warranties have a substantial loophole in terms of the time frame of these conditions and warranties. Customers can be easily mislead and book for services that will be out of date by the time they visit the hotel. More so, noticeable amendments regarding offers are made at the end of the document and hence potentially misleading. The terms of payments for the services of the resort have specified the age limit and not the citizenship (Bruce 2010, p.123). It is therefore easy for non-citizens to assume that the prices are standard. In the event that a visitor pays and visits the hotel during the booked time, these variations could potentially lead to legal tassels based on the information provided by the brochure (Griggs, Webb, & Freilich 2008, p.23). Other potentially hidden terms and conditions not indicated in the brochure includes the cost of payments in the respective payment options and the scope and content of provisions given by Butlin’s Caravan Village Skegness. Under the contract law, it is the duty of the advertiser to clearly explain all facts regarding the service or product being advertised in order to avoid misleading the potential user of the information. As such, Butlin’s Caravan Village Skegness brochure does not fully explain the terms of the service being offered besides classifying them in terms of different classes such as Silver, Gold, and Gold Plus. It is necessary to be detailed as possible in order to avoid misinterpretation of the presented content (Goldring, Maher, McKeough & Pearson 1998). This is wanting in Butlin’s brochure, the focus of the brochure of more of marketing and less of detailed information regarding the conditions, warranties and other provisions of using the service. Critical analysis of the materials in the brochure There are several materials in the brochure which are potentially unconscionable, misleading, false representation, and bait advertising and offer gifts. Unconscionable materials that could potentially take advantage of the users are the representation that the rooms are fully equipped, fully furnished, and the availability of other passes and materials. Unconscionable could arise because of the people’s interpretation of what fully equipped and fully furnished means to them. The resort might have assumed that a fully furnished or fully equipped means equipping the rooms with basic appliances used in daily lives. For users, this might mean that the rooms have food materials, gym, and incorporation of varying cultural appliances among others. This might lead to potentially unconscionable conduct on the part of the resort as presented in the brochure. The materials that could be misleading or deceptive in the brochure are also evident. As an example, the categories or classes of users presented such as silver, Gold, and Gold Plus have the potential of derailing the users with respect to the real value that they get from these classifications. Notably, there are not elaborations with regard to the key difference in every class from the materials provided in the brochure. This by itself raises questions regarding the real value of every class as well as the difference in payments. The lack of clear information regarding the materials raises fundamental question. Furthermore, the classes are only indicated based on the month, the day, the date and the event such as family entertainment and school out. No further details are provided, this makes it unclear regarding the real value that customers gain as a result of booking different classes. In summary, there should have been a clear difference between the cheapest option, Silver and the most expensive option Gold Plus. If the customer makes decisions using the information provided, the likelihood of making the wrong decision is significantly increased. This is potentially deceptive on the part of the Butlin resort. The other notable concern is the potential false representation, activity passes. The brochure in marketing terms indicated that there would be opportunities to try new things. Unfortunately, the listed activities are common, few examples include action pass such as bowling, American pool, Go-Karts, and adrenaline activities such as climbing wall, free fall and high repos among others (Smith 2002, p.408). The reason why these are considered false representation under consumer and competition act lies on the fact that they do not genuinely represent new adventures that customers visiting the hotel will expect and as such, a false representation on the part of the resort (Marie 2009, p.8). More so, these pass activities can also be considered bait advertising which solely focuses on getting people visit the resort. Bait advertising is provided for under Australia’s contract law and consumer protection and competition law. It is the mandate of the advertiser (in this case the author of the brochure) to fully disclose all the details about the service as well as accurate salient features that will add value to the service or product being achieve. Failure to full disclosure or use of bait advertisement will lead to breach of contract as enshrined in the “offer”, advertisement brochure in this case (Cseres 2005, p.325). The rationale why this is considered a bait advertisement is because of the lack of “new” adventure as clearly outlined in the offer. According to Howells & Wilhelmsson 2010, p.344) a contract is normally created when the intended person accepts the offer and goes ahead to pay for the “treat” referred to as the experience in this context. If the offer was a mere bait advertisement and there is no real value from the experience, the receiver of the treat can sue for bait advertisement, this is potential in this Butlin’s advertisement. In this brochure, the potential offer or prices are the discounts to be given for early birds which lasts for a month (Tomasic, Bottomley & McQueen 2002, p.234). These offers and prices could bring potential legal issues if the applicant makes rush decision in order to save for the holiday. As such, a legal case can develop on the grounds of limited time to go through the offer coupled with other misleading statements contained in the brochure (Benjamin 2012, p.48). Critical analysis of the brochure to identify exclusion and limitation According to Radan & Gooley (2010, p.111), the Unfair Contract Terms Act (UCTA) under the common law and contract law aim at limiting the liability and potential environment of liability subject to clearly defined restrictive conditions. In this brochure, some elements of exclusion and limitation are evident from the definition of a contract in this aspect. As an example, if a client is not satisfied with service due to his or her personal likes, he or she is limited and restricted if he or she decides to sue the resort. The resort provides standards services and it is the responsibility of the users to assess the activities and the ambience provided before going ahead to book for the service (David 2010, p.45). In contract law, the resort will not be liable for failure of service usage which they provided because of the different needs of the customer who has the opportunity to assess and even inquire for the services before going ahead to book (Cseres 2005, p.325). The other exclusion and limitation that is also clear in this case is self-inflicted injuries due careless actions by the visitors. In summary, the resort is liable for other damages such as failure of equipment’s or failure to take preventive measures on the caravans and other utilities in the resort to the extent to which the resort could have done nothing to prevent the injury in the resort (Warren 2012,p.12). References Benjamin, SR 2012, Between Tort Law, Contract Law, and Child Law: How to Compensate the Left-Behind Parent in International Child Abduction Cases, Columbia Journal of Gender and Law, Vol. 23, No. 1. Pp.48-56. Bruce, A 2010, Consumer Protection Law in Australia, LexisNexis Butterworths, Thausand Oaks. pp.123-129. Cseres, KJ 2005, Competition Law and Consumer Protection, Kluwer Law International, Sydney. 329-345. David, C 2010, A Critical Examination of How Contract Law Is Used by Financial Institutions Operating in Multiple Jurisdictions, Melbourne University Law Review, Vol. 34, No. 1.pp.45-49. Goldring, J, Maher, L, McKeough, J, & Pearson, G 1998, Consumer Protection Law, Federation Press, Sydney. 45-56. Griggs, L, Webb, E, & Freilich, AYM 2008, Consumer Protection Law, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Pp.23-34. Howells, GG & Wilhelmsson, RT 2010, Handbook of Research on International Consumer Law, Edward Elgar Publishing, Michigan. Pp.344-356. 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