Commercial Law

Written mini-research assignment:

Word Count: 1,500-2,000 max. This includes footnotes and references.

There are two (2) questions worth 15 marks each.

Jamal was interested in purchasing a business class ticket for his flight from Darwin to Delhi over the wet season. As prices can vary between airlines he decided to shop around on the internet first. The best deal he could find was from ‘Air Garoupa’. This fare also promised to give benefits in Singapore where he would face an approximate 5 hour wait between connecting flights.

The Air Garoupa salesperson quoted a price of $1,200 for the return flight. Jamal thought this was relatively cheap and promptly gave his credit card details. Two weeks after he had paid for his return ticket he noticed he had been charged $1,800 as there were some “unspecified taxes” added to his bill. He had not been directly informed about this by the salesperson when he paid, but when he made further enquiries with Air Garoupa he was told of an exclusion clause that is in all their ticket purchases and readily available on the internet which said: “prices may, from time to time, be subject to change due to unspecified taxes”. Jamal didn’t notice this clause as it was buried in fine print.

1. Was there an enforceable contact here? Will Jamal be required to pay the extra $600 and if so, on what grounds?

2. Could Jamal use Consumer laws in the above scenario and, if so, what arguments might he rely on? What defence arguments are available to the defendant under the Australian Competition and Consumer Act (2010).