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Did you read the T&Cs?
RETAIL giant Amazon has been called out for a “ridiculous” step in its sales process that is a serious time waster — and could potentially leave customers empty-handed.
But if you’re anything like most online shoppers, you probably haven’t given it a second thought.
It’s those pesky terms and conditions you have to click on before signing up for Amazon Kindle. Who reads those things, anyway?
Consumer group Choice has demonstrated just why people don’t read them — and what the implications might be — by rising to the challenge in a true feat of endurance.
It took Choice’s testers an insane eight hours and 59 minutes to wade through the 73,198 word terms and conditions, and they discovered that it included several clauses it claims would breach Australian laws and leave customers out of pocket.
“In the case of the Kindle Voyage, there are a minimum of eight documents that need to be read and agreed to when buying the device, and if you want to use any subscription services that’ll be a whole lot more documents too,” Choice said.
The documents include terms of use, conditions of use and privacy notices for all of the different Amazon services including Amazon Drive, websites, Prime photos and location services.
“The total word count on these documents is almost as long as an average book,” Choice said, noting that rival e-book reader Kobo required users to wade through a comparatively modest 10,000 words.
The group is calling on the Federal Government to ban global companies from making online shoppers agree to unreasonably long, “unreadable” T&Cs that it says would be deemed unfair under Australian Consumer Law, with a petition that aims to document the public’s support for a crackdown.
“In practice, ticking a box to accept a contractual agreement with Amazon only takes a few seconds, but what you’re really being asked to do is stop and read eight hours and 59 minutes of fine print,” Choice media spokesman Tom Godfrey said. “The length and complexity of these contracts is completely unreasonable.”
He said while the law protected Australians from unfair contract terms, “we think the practice of expecting a customer to spend hours of their lives reading a contract for a simple product is unfair.”
And it could have adverse implications if a product was defective and needed to be returned, he said.
“One particularly concerning clause in the Amazon contract locks consumers into an arbitration
process in the United States if they have an unresolved problem with their Kindle,” Mr Godfrey said.
Under Australian consumer law, if a product is faulty the buyer has the right to be directly compensated by the manufacturer, without having to pursue the matter in an overseas arbitration.
“A clause supposedly forcing you into overseas arbitration is likely to leave consumers
confused about their legal rights,” Mr Godfrey said.
“Companies need to do better and they should be explaining any conditions in a way that’s simple and easy to read.”
He said shoppers who wanted to avoid signing their life away could try EULAlyzer, an app that analyses wordy T&Cs in seconds, and pulls out key words and phrases.
News.com.au has reached out to Amazon for comment.