These terms and conditions (T&Cs) lay out all the details you need to know when browsing our site, or interacting with us.
We encourage you to read the entire document, because when you access our site we'll assume you know and agree to our T&Cs.
But in short:
- You can use our sites as long as you don't hack us, steal or use our content without asking, or share your password with others.
- Take responsibility for what you post: don't use our sites to break any laws or promote your brand or company. Don't behave in a disrespectful or threatening way.
- You should know that when you subscribe online, we'll bill you on a recurring basis. We'd like to make it really clear that it's up to you to cancel these payments – but we're always here to help if you have any problems.
What's covered under the T&Cs?
This page sets out the full T&Cs of use of CHOICE's Sites. When we talk about using a CHOICE "Site" or Sites, we're talking about using this website, including our freely available content and the member areas of the website, as well as our free member research community, Voice Your CHOICE.
Since most interactions are via the website and other digital platforms we will use the term "Sites" below as a convenient reference. But you should take this reference and the T&Cs, where applicable, as applying to all other communications between us. These include phone calls, emails, correspondence and our hard copy magazine publications.
Updates to these T&Cs
We may change these T&Cs from time to time. You should know that by continuing to use our Sites you're agreeing to the updated T&Cs. To make it easy for you to find the latest T&Cs, we provide a link at the bottom of each page of this website and other Sites and platforms as appropriate.
Who are 'you'?
In these T&Cs "you" are the user of the Sites. You can be a person, a corporate entity or another entity incorporated or unincorporated, like an association.
Who we are
We're "CHOICE", also known as the Australian Consumers' Association Ltd, a nonprofit company, with offices at 57 Carrington Road, Marrickville, NSW 2204 Australia.
The 'Agreement'
By using, registering and/or subscribing to one or more of the Sites, you agree to these terms and conditions ("Agreement").
The breakdown
There are four parts to the Agreement.
On this page:
1. General
Your rights
As long as you comply with the Agreement, we give you the right to access, use and display one or more of the Sites. The contents of the Sites are for your personal, non-commercial use only. You agree not to interrupt, or attempt to interrupt, the operation of the Sites in any way.
You agree not to share your access privileges with any other person or organisation. If you're a business, library or school or another institution and would like access for multiple users to the premium or member parts of the Sites, we can arrange that. Please call our friendly Customer Service team on 1800 069 552 Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm (AEST or AEDT) to find out more.
What we don't allow
While we encourage your use of the Sites in accordance with your rights above, there are a few things we must prohibit including:
- Any conduct which threatens the reputation of CHOICE
- Any conduct which falsely suggests an association with or endorsement or approval by us
- Any attempt to bypass a paywall or other restriction to member-only content
- Using artificial intelligence to derive material from content on the Sites
- Other conduct referred to under User-generated content below.
Protecting your password
When you register with CHOICE, you'll select a password. If our Customer Service team sets up your access, immediately change the generic password used for that purpose on your next log in. Take care to keep your password confidential. Don't write it down or store it electronically where it can be discovered and don't disclose it to anyone.
You could be liable if an unauthorised person gains access to any of the Sites and breaches the T&Cs or in some way damages one or more of the Sites using your log-in details.
Your privacy
We take protecting your privacy very seriously at CHOICE, and abide by the Australian Privacy Principles. You can read how we do this in our Privacy Policy. Or, if you prefer, write to us at 57 Carrington Rd, Marrickville, NSW 2204 Australia and we'll be happy to send you a copy.
Just be aware that, if you post user content to our Sites, you may lose some privacy. You should also check the further provisions under User-generated content below.
Copyright and trademarks
CHOICE owns the copyright for all material presented on the Sites, and some of our employees and/or contractors own moral rights.
Using our content
If you'd like to use any CHOICE ratings, reports, articles, materials, photos, graphics, publications, products or equivalent materials including trademarks and other CHOICE intellectual property ("the Materials"), in whole or part, you need our written permission.
We reserve the right to amend or delete, without liability, any of the Materials at our absolute discretion.
Copyright protections
The Materials are protected in Australia and internationally by the law of copyright, moral rights, trademark, equity, common law and other legislation such as the Competition and Consumer Act 2010.
We reserve the right to take legal action to prevent any unauthorised use or reproduction of the Materials, in whole or part, for any purpose including but not limited to advertising, copyright works, trademarks, logos and any commercial use.
You can help us by asking for permission to use the Materials or reporting anything you think breaches this agreement to us at [email protected].
Links to other sites
We link out to other sites from time to time, usually to give you additional info you might want or need. But we don't endorse, and haven't necessarily verified any of the information available from any link found within the Sites.
We welcome links from other sites to ours, but not if you also copy or appropriate our content at the same time:
- You may not copy or use any of the graphics (or other elements) from one of our Sites within another site - any link to us should be provided as a text link.
- You may not link to the Sites within a frame in your site.
- You may not link to the Sites from a site containing offensive or infringing material orother content which would damage the reputation of CHOICE.
We'll take all steps available to us to prevent links of these types to our Sites.
What you need to acknowledge about our content
While we encourage you to make use of the Materials and other content on our Sites, you must understand that the content is derived from a wide range of sources on a wide range of products and services. It is not tailored for individual needs.
We don't provide refunds, compensation or any other forms of redress, if you are dissatisfied because, for example:
- We make a mistake in the information we provide
- We pass on, in good faith, incorrect information published by others
- You are unable to obtain a product or service for the price referred to on our Sites
- You wanted reviews or information on particular products or services and we did not carry that material
- Our reviews or the information we provided did not meet your expectations
- You did not agree with our reviews
- You encounter difficulty accessing, downloading or copying from our Sites or any linked third-party sites
- You pay your subscription and access member-only content but it does not live up to your expectation
- You don't end up using your subscription as you thought you would.
If making a decision on a purchase or investment is likely to have significant legal, financial, health or other major implications, you should seek out professional advice to take into account your personal circumstances.
We will not in any event be liable for any indirect, incidental or consequential losses which may arise through your use of the Sites.
2. User-generated content
The Agreement relates to any and all Communications submitted to one or more of the Sites. By "Communications" we mean things like content, survey responses, other responses to research, forum contributions, and user reviews and comments.
Removing material
It probably won't happen often but we may, in our absolute discretion, at any time remove any Communications from the Sites. Just to be clear: removing these Communications isn't an admission that they're inappropriate, and it's not an admission of any liability by us.
If we think it's necessary, we'll remove Communications and/or any other content within our control.
When we'll remove content
If we consider something is:
1. For a commercial purpose
2. Indecent or abusive
3. False or misleading
4. Slanderous, libellous or defamatory
5. Likely to cause injury of any kind
6. Likely to or does violate or breach any rights of any person and/or group (including the intellectual property rights, contract rights, or any other rights of CHOICE and/or any third party)
7. Likely to or does violate or breach any applicable laws, rules, or regulations
8. Likely to or does contain software viruses or any other malicious code
9. Likely to be harmful, or to cause loss or damages to CHOICE and/or any third parties
10. In our opinion, of a vexatious nature
11. Likely to relate to a subscription or access issue and the customer has been contacted and/or the issue has been resolved
12. Off-topic and/or
13. Not adequately and/or properly declaring an association and/or vested interest in any brand, product and/or company
You're responsible for what you post
You should know you are solely responsible for the content of any and all Communications you publish to the Sites. These are public, unless otherwise indicated.
These disclaimers limit our liability to you. It's important you're aware of them.
When you post to the Sites:
- You acknowledge and agree not to use a bot or other device to scrape or assist scraping of information from the Sites.
- We can use and republish anything you post to the Sites.
- You indemnify us in case you publish something that gets us into trouble. Indemnify means you'll take responsibility and secure us against legal responsibility.
- You acknowledge and agree that, we may in our absolute discretion and without notification to you, edit or remove any one or more of the Communications from the Sites.
- You acknowledge and agree that we aren't under any obligation to publish the Communications.
- You acknowledge and agree that we aren't liable for your actions in using our Sites.
Complaints about user comments
Please understand that we don't and can't control, review or systematically vet the content of any Communications.
We don't take responsibility for, endorse or necessarily agree with your Communications and/or the Communications of any third party, including members of the public, on our Sites.
In no circumstances will we offer any refund, compensation or other redress arising from Communications by you or anyone else on our Sites.
We'll still try to respond to complaints
CHOICE will permanently remove any and all relevant communications if we think that's necessary.
While we'll try our best to act on any complaint, we can't guarantee we'll act within any specific time period. And we won't act on any complaint that we deem to be vexatious. (In plain language, vexatious means frivolous or without genuine grounds for a complaint.)
You should know that if you complain but don't include your name and contact details, we may treat your complaint as vexatious.
Reporting inappropriate comments
If you think a comment is inappropriate, unsuitable or breaches any term or condition of the Agreement, please report it to Customer Services and provide these details:
- Why you think the material is inappropriate, unsuitable or in breach of the Agreement terms and conditions
- Your name and contact details
We take any and all complaints seriously, and we'll temporarily remove relevant Communications while we review them.
Declaring other interests
If you have a link to or an interest in a company, organisation, business, organised group, political party or similar collective entity, you agree to declare this in an up-front and honest way. An interest can include a short-term affiliation or involvement, employment connection, business relationship, close family connection or previous relationship.
If you represent an interest such as a business and would like to leave a comment or reply in this capacity, please add your name, job title and a website link to your profile.
Your privacy
Please be aware that if you provide any of your name, job title, employer logo, personal experience or image to us as part of your post to the Sites, you consent to that information being made available to other visitors to the Sites.
CHOICE staff comments
From time to time, CHOICE staff may respond to queries or comments. This is not an approval, agreement or endorsement of your or another party's comments, and it's not indicative of a systematic review of that or any other forum facilitated by us.
3. Subscriptions and billing
Here's what you need to know when you have a subscription with us.
Prices
All our prices are in Australian dollars. We may change the price of your subscription from time to time but we'll let you know before this happens.
When paying by credit card, CHOICE does not add any merchant fees to the transaction - the price at checkout is the price on your statement.
Recurring payments (automatic renewals)
When you subscribe online, we'll bill you on a recurring basis using your nominated payment method, which could include:
- Credit card
- Digital wallet
- BPay (selected subscriptions, arranged with our Customer Service team)
- Direct debit (selected subscriptions, arranged with our Customer Service team)
That means we'll debit your nominated payment method, be that credit card, digital wallet, BPay or direct debit, until you tell us to stop. In other words, it's up to you to cancel, which you can do at any time.
- If you have a 3-monthly subscription, we'll automatically debit your nominated payment method (credit card or direct debit) every three (3) months. You'll see your debit on your bank statement, shown as "CHOICE MARRICKVILLE".
- If you have a yearly or 2-yearly subscription, we'll let you know that a new billing term is about to start before we debit you.
If you choose direct debit as your payment method of choice, then the following paragraph applies to you:
Choosing direct debit means that you authorise CHOICE ABN 72 000 281 925 via SR Global Solutions Pty Ltd ACN 132 951 172 (Debit User ID No. 397351), trading as Merchant Warrior, unless otherwise advised by you, to debit your nominated account through the direct debit system for the amount due, according to the payment schedule you chose.
To avoid being charged for the next billing period, notify us that you'd like to cancel at least one (1) day before your subscription expires.
We won't be liable for providing access to the Sites or any material from the Sites during any period for which we didn't receive a timely payment from you.
Apart from the limited circumstances described below, we won't provide refunds for unused or partly used subscriptions.
Cooling-off periods — yearly and 2-yearly renewals
We understand that sometimes things get overlooked and you may forget to cancel your subscription before it rolls over into a new term.
We're happy to help out if that happens but you need to let us know as soon as you can.
For yearly and 2-yearly subscriptions that have automatically renewed:
- Contact us within 14 days after the renewal date and we'll provide a full refund
- Contact us within 30 days after the renewal date and we may change your subscription term to a shorter standard period if available and refund the unused subscription amount
Expired credit cards
You should be aware that many credit card issuers will continue to allow debits from existing arrangements after a new credit card has been issued with a new expiry date.
Please don't think your subscription with us has expired simply because your old credit card has expired and you did not notify us of your updated details. Again, it's up to you to cancel by contacting us.
If your yearly or 2-yearly subscription has automatically renewed in this way, we might help you in one of the above ways if you contact us within the 14- or 30-day cooling-off periods.
But you won't otherwise be entitled to a refund.
Cancelling payments
Subscriptions
Cancel your payments at any time by:
- Logging in at choice.com.au and going into your account where you can cancel your subscription
- Calling us on 1800 069 552 during business hours (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm AEST or AEDT) or emailing [email protected]
You'll have access to all the services that come with your subscription until the end of your billing term.
To see the different subscriptions available, go to membership options.
Recurring donations
To change or cancel your monthly donation at any time, call us on 1800 069 552 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm AEST or AEDT) or email [email protected].
4. Problems or complaints
Your rights
Under Australia's Competition and Consumer Act 2010, you have remedies available to you if a service isn't delivered with due care and skill. Your CHOICE subscription is no exception.
Something wrong?
Let us know by calling us 1800 069 552 during business hours (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm AEST or AEDT) or emailing us at [email protected] and we'll help you as quickly as we can. You can read more about our complaints handling policy here.
Please treat us with courtesy and respect
In return, you can expect the same from us.
To protect our staff, we must have zero tolerance for any verbal or written communication which, in the reasonable view of a CHOICE staff member:
- Is rude, vulgar or abusive
- Is sexist or racist
- Is aggressive, threatening or intimidating
- Is overly repetitive or circular
- Makes unreasonable demands
- Threatens the good reputation of CHOICE
- Is otherwise inflammatory, unpleasant or unreasonable
If we do encounter this type of behaviour, we may try to warn you in the first instance to deal with us in a courteous and respectful manner.
However, the safety and welfare of our staff is paramount so we must reserve the right to take a range of measures if we encounter behaviour of the type referred to above, and these may include:
- Verbal or written warnings
- Terminating calls
- Deleting, disposing of or returning written communications without response
- Restricting your access to our staff or our Sites
- Suspending or terminating your membership and/or
- Making reports to appropriate authorities
We reserve our rights to take appropriate action to protect our staff depending on the situation.
Need help?
We're always here to help you. Get in touch by calling us on 1800 069 552 during business hours (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm AEST or AEDT) or emailing us at [email protected].
