Legal Advice – The Business Place

Why A Privacy Policy Is Essential For Any Business Which Collects Personal Data

One of the many things that the internet has brought into the awareness of everyone who uses it, is the risk that exists concerning their personal and private data. Whether it be the annoyance of an email address being sent spam, or the trauma of having credit card details stolen and used to make purchases, the risks exist for everyone online.

Commercial Lawyers Perth tell us this is why commercial law makes it abundantly clear that the onus is on those who take, use and store data, to have measures in place to protect it. The most relevant commercial legislation in Australia is the Privacy Act which was introduced in 1998. It is this act which businesses and organisations should comply with, and their privacy policies should make that crystal clear.

Why Your Business’s Website Must Have Terms And Conditions

In a world where intent use is growing exponentially, especially after Covid lockdowns and people having no access to friends and family other than going online, we assume most business owners reading this have a website for their business. if not, we suggest you get one designed as soon as possible, because your competition is certain to have one.

For every business that does have a website, just as there is in the offline world, there are several legal obligations that commercial law dictates that you must adhere to online. Should you fail to do so you are opening yourself up to the risk not just of civil legal action from other parties but also fines and penalties being imposed by The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

On the flip side instead of trying to avoid the negatives, your business can gain several positive advantages of having a legally compliant website. By compliant we mean it has the legal pages required by the ACCC and appropriate terms and conditions published within it. By advantages, we mean that visitors are more likely to trust a business that has a compliant website, and it can even help your website rank higher on Google when it sees your legal pages are all in order.

3 Simple Company Compliance Tips For New Small Businesses

If you are in the process of purchasing or starting your first business it can be an exciting time but also one that is fraught with concerns and worries. Not so many worries about whether your business will be successful, as we would hope you are well prepared to make that happen. Instead, the worries we are talking about are trying to ensure your get all the legalities right to ensure that you comply with commercial law.

One of the best ways to allay any concerns you have is to seek out an established commercial lawyer who can advise you not just how to ensure your business opens with all the legalities in place, but also your compliance continues as your business grows. One of the areas of commercial law they are likely to advise you upon first is company compliance.

Company compliances are those legal tasks which every business has to adhere to, and whilst the details of them might not seem the most exciting, they are essential if you are to remain compliant with commercial law in this country. To further that cause here are three tips you should follow to ensure you adhere to what is legally required of you.

7 Main Components Of A Commercial Lease

For the vast majority of businesses, owning the building from which they operate or trade is usually not feasible. The main reason for that is the huge financial obligation necessary to purchase such buildings and the additional costs associated with their operation and maintenance.

This is why commercial leases are a legal document that most business owners will be familiar with, as that they allow them to lease a building or offices from a commercial landlord to trade from. Each landlord may have their own bespoke commercial lease, but the terms and conditions within it must comply with commercial law relating to commercial property leasing.

Each commercial lease will contain several components which form the agreement between the commercial landlord and the business owner leasing the premises. Below are seven that are certain to be included.

Lease Duration: The duration or ‘term’ of the commercial lease will state how long the tenant will rent the property from the landlord. This has importance for both the tenant and the landlord and is thus likely to never be too short not too long a duration. Before signing a business owner needs to consider if the term is congruent with their business’s growth and development.

Building Contracts And Your Options For Terminating Them

Having a new building created for your business is a huge commitment and such is the undertaking it is little surprise that protections exist both under commercial law, and often as a clause contained within the building contract itself. With the huge implications for your business financially, being able to cancel a building contract if all is not going smoothly is a right you will wish to have. Here is how that right could manifest itself.

Building Contract Termination

The definition of the termination of a building contract is that it releases both parties from some or all of their obligations under the contract. However, that does mean that either party does not still have rights that continue thereafter.

Your Grounds For Terminating A Building Contract

In most instances, commercial law provides the basis upon which a contract for building work can be terminated which we have outlined below.

#1 Breach Of Contract

Breach of contract will exist if the other party, in this case, the construction company, are failing to meet their obligations under the building contract. The list of breaches is almost endless, but it could include not using specified materials, not complying with building regulations, and failing to meet agreed milestones within a specified time. You must ensure a breach has taken place by first identifying it, and then gathering evidence of that breach.

What Are The Rights of Minority Shareholders?

You might imagine that under commercial law the majority shareholder holds all the power and that what they say goes. This is true to an extent, however, minority shareholders do have rights and commercial law has clear guidelines as to how those rights must be honoured.

A minority shareholder is someone or an institution that holds less than 50% of the shares of a company. In normal circumstances, this means that, regardless of the views, opinions or wishes of minority shareholders, if the majority who hold over 50% individually or collectively, take the opposite view, then the majority’s view will prevail.

Whilst it is always advisable that you speak to a professional financial advisor before entering into an arrangment like this, it is a simple principle to understand and is nothing sinister, as in many walks of life the majority view prevails. In all kinds of organisations, including governments, 50% +1 is enough to carry any vote. Within companies, this is the same, but that does not mean minority shareholders do not have rights and obligations akin to those of majority shareholders, as we will now explain.

Minority Shareholders Rights

Many of the rights that majority shareholders have also belong to minority shareholders. The fact that someone has a 10% share in the company versus someone with a 55% share, might mean that they do not always win votes when they are taken, but it still affords equal rights in many aspects of how a company operates.