A deal gone wrong: misleading claims and broken contracts

When you were misled

Consent is not free when it is caused by coercion, undue influence, fraud, misrepresentation or, subject to sections 21, 22 and 23, mistake. Consent is caused by any of these when it would not have been given without it.

Contracts Act s 14

A misrepresentation includes a positive statement of something untrue, made in a way the information of the person making it does not warrant, even though that person believes it to be true.

Contracts Act s 18

If your consent was caused by coercion, fraud or misrepresentation, the contract is voidable at your option. If it was caused by fraud or misrepresentation, you can instead insist that the contract be performed and that you be put in the position you would have been in if the representations made had been true.

Contracts Act s 19

The contract is not voidable, though, if your consent was caused by misrepresentation, or by silence that is fraudulent under section 17, and you had the means of discovering the truth with ordinary diligence. A fraud or misrepresentation that did not cause your consent does not make the contract voidable.

Contracts Act s 19

If you set aside a contract that is voidable at your option, the other side need not perform its promises under it, and you must restore any benefit you received under it from the other side, so far as you can.

Contracts Act s 65

When the other side breaks the contract

When a contract is broken, the side that suffers is entitled to compensation from the side that broke it for loss or damage that arose naturally in the usual course of things from the breach, or that both sides knew, when they made the contract, was likely to result from it.

Contracts Act s 74(1)

Compensation is not given for remote and indirect loss or damage.

Contracts Act s 74(2)

In working out the loss, the means that existed of remedying the inconvenience caused by the contract not being performed are taken into account.

Contracts Act s 74

If the contract names a sum to be paid on a breach, or contains another penalty, the side complaining of the breach is entitled to reasonable compensation up to that sum or penalty, whether or not actual damage or loss is proved.

Contracts Act s 75

A person who rightly rescinds a contract is entitled to compensation for any damage they sustained through the contract not being fulfilled.

Contracts Act s 76

When a business misleads a consumer

In a consumer transaction, it is an unfair practice for a supplier to do or say anything, or leave anything undone or unsaid, if as a result a consumer might reasonably be deceived or misled. It is also an unfair practice for a supplier to make a false claim, or to take advantage of a consumer whom the supplier knows, or ought reasonably to know, is not in a position to protect their own interests.

Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act s 4

A consumer who has entered a consumer transaction involving an unfair practice can bring an action against the supplier in a court that has the power to hear it. This right does not apply to a claim for more than the prescribed limit or, where no money is claimed, to relief about a subject matter worth more than that limit. The Act sets that limit at $10,000, or another amount the Minister prescribes by order in the Gazette. A consumer with a larger claim can give up the excess, but then cannot recover more than the limit in that action.

Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act s 6

The Act applies only if the supplier or the consumer is resident in Brunei Darussalam, or the offer or acceptance in the transaction is made in or sent from Brunei Darussalam.

Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act s 3

This guide covers only the rules these Acts set out.