Australians won’t be entitled to a full refund if coronavirus causes their wedding, holiday or theatre show to be cancelled, the consumer regulator has ruled.
Bans on pubs and clubs and large indoor gatherings have forced many function centres and performing arts venues to close their doors.
Guests have been turned away from weddings under new rules stipulating a limit of five people at the nuptials, which includes the couple marrying, the celebrant and two witnesses.
Australians won’t be entitled to a full refund if coronavirus causes their wedding, holiday or theatre show to be cancelled, the consumer regulator has ruled. Pictured are newlyweds at Sydney’s Circular Quay holding some minimalist nupitals in late March under COVID-19 rules
Qantas and Virgin Australia have also suspended international flights until mid-year, leaving many holidaymakers stranded or at least scrambling to organise a return flight home.
Cruises have also been cancelled with ocean liners among the biggest carriers of coronavirus.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has ruled businesses won’t be required to give customers a full refund if COVID-19 had forced an event to be cancelled.
‘If cancellation occurs due to government restrictions, it is unlikely the customer will be entitled to a refund under the consumer guarantee provisions of the Australian consumer law,’ it said.
Even if a customer isn’t refunded, the ACCC said they were still entitled to some compensation.
‘You may agree to another remedy with the customer, such as providing a partial refund, a credit note or voucher, or postponing the services until a later date if possible,’ it said.
Cruises have also been cancelled with ocean liners among the biggest carriers of coronavirus. Pictured are passengers in limbo at Fremantle in Perth aboard MSC Magnifica
In cases where a voucher is provided, the ACCC said it need to have an expiry day ‘which is long enough to allow your customer to use’
Consumer laws also require businesses to honour existing terms and conditions regarding cancellation policies.
The ACCC has warned businesses to avoid being tricky.
‘The relevant terms and conditions are those in effect at the time your customer made their booking, i.e. you cannot retrospectively change these,’ it said.
‘The customer may also have rights under contract law where the contract has not been performed.’
Businesses are being urged to ‘contact customers wherever possible to advise them of how you are handling various circumstances’.
Economists fear Australia’s unemployment rate will more than double overnight, from 5.1 per cent to double-digit levels unseen since 1932 during the worst part of the Great Depression.
Even before the World Health Organisation declared COVID-19 to be a pandemic, the number of job vacancies had already fallen by 2.2 per cent in the year to February.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has ruled businesses won’t be required to give customers a full refund if COVID-19 had forced an event to be cancelled. Pictured is Melbourne’s Regent Theatre on March 18, which was closed for coronavirus
The Australian Bureau of Statistics’s chief economist Bruce Hockman said unemployment was likely to worsen, with official labour force figures for March still a fortnight away.
‘The period since the February survey has been a difficult time for the Australian community,’ he said.
Westpac chief economist Bill Evans has today updated his forecasts to have unemployment peaking at nine per cent in the June quarter instead of 17 per cent.
‘We expect the beneficial effects of the Government’s JobKeeper policy to restrict the rise in the unemployment rate to a peak of 9 per cent at June 2020 and to then see it fall back to around 7 per cent at year’s end,’ he said.
He credited the government’s third stimulus package, worth $130 billion. It includes a Jobkeeper program where six million workers, through their employer, will be paid $1,500 a fortnight to be kept on the books.
This week, Deloitte Access Economics partner Chris Richardson estimated one million Australians lost their jobs last week.
That would see the jobless rate more than double from 5.1 per cent to 12.4 per cent in March, the highest since 1932.