Question

Course：Business Law

Frontier Entertainment Pty Ltd is a company that trades under the name “Concert Connections” (CC). In January of 2019, CC negotiated and arranged for three international acts to tour Australia in 2020 and 2021. The three artists, their Australian concert locations and dates were as follows:

1. Taylor Swifty Sydney / Melbourne / Adelaide Brisbane / Perth / Hobart November – December 2020

2. Ed Shearer Brisbane / Perth / Hobart January – February 2021

3. Lady Gaggle Sydney / Canberra / Darwin August – September 2021

In April of 2020, those consumer concert goers who purchased tickets to one or more of the Taylor Swifty concerts received notice from CC that due to the COVID- 19 pandemic, Taylor’s arranged concerts had been cancelled. The notification further stated that CC would be cancelling all ticket purchase contracts and retaining the full $550.00 ticket purchase price previously paid by concert goers in accordance with Clause 10 of the contract entered when the ticket(s) were originally purchased. Clause 11 of the same contract also states that in the event of CC exercising its rights in relation to clause 10, ticket purchasers are prohibited from taking any legal action for recovery of their money previously paid.

Samuel purchased 5 tickets for his family to attend the Taylor Swifty concert in Sydney on 02 November 2020. Samuel comes to see you and says that despite CC’c clearly expressed contractual right to retain his $2,700.00, their refusal not to refund him his money is unfair. Samuel wants to know if the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) can assist his cause.

Advise Samuel

Answer 1

A Various Situations and its Provisions :

(i) If the concert is cancelled in general Situations i.e., other than Pandemic situations :  

The general legal position in ordinary circumstances is that, if an event is cancelled, the event organiser will usually be obligated under the ACL to offer refunds to affected customers. This is because the ACL contains consumer guarantees that goods or services purchased by a consumer will be supplied within a reasonable time and will be 'fit for purpose'. These guarantees apply to all consumer transactions in Australia and cannot be excluded or limited by contract.

Where an event is delayed for a significant period of time or cancelled entirely, this will likely constitute a breach of the consumer guarantee that services will be supplied within a reasonable time and/or that services will be "fit for purpose". This entitles ticketholders to a full refund for the price they paid for the ticket.

(ii) If the concert is cancelled due to government directives regarding COVID-19 :

As per the guidance issued by the ACCC it "expects" that consumers will receive refunds for tickets to cancelled events. However, the guidance indicates that, in the view of the ACCC, if an event is cancelled due to government restrictions, then this will impact the consumer guarantees under the ACL. In other words, if an event organiser is forced to cancel an event in order to comply with a government directive (for example because the event is considered a non-essential gathering), then consumers may not be entitled to a refund.

In these circumstances, the terms and conditions of the ticket or any other contractual relationship between the ticket purchaser and the event organiser may provide for a right to a refund or other remedy for the consumer.

(iii) If the concert is cancelled due Concern over Pandemic Situation prior to govt directives :

In the above mentioned situation consumer gurantees would apply and ticket holders would be entitled to full Refund.

B Conclusions :

If the Taylor Swift concert which is to be held in November 2020 is cancelled because of Lockdown then Samuel is not entitled for refund neither as per Law nor as per Contract.

If the Taylor swift concert is cancelled by “Concert Connections” (CC) and is their own decision then Samuel is entiltled to Refund of $ 2,700 eben if restricted by contract.

;