On 2 August 2019, the Federal Supreme Court declared that certain contractual terms between Mitolo or Maranello and potato growers concluded between December 2016 and February 2018 were unfair contract terms and therefore void. The contract terms declared unfair included terms that allowed Mitolo to unilaterally determine or change the price Mitolo paid to farmers for potatoes, unilaterally change other contractual conditions, declare potatoes as “waste” without an appropriate verification mechanism, and prevent farmers from selling potatoes to other buyers. The Court also held that the terms of Mitolo`s contracts that prevented farmers from selling their own property, unless the potential buyer entered into an exclusive potato growing agreement with Mitolo, constituted unfair contract terms. Mitolo Group Pty Ltd (Mitolo) and Maranello Trading Pty Ltd (Maranello) have agreed that they will not enter into or offer a standard contract for a period of 3 years from the start of the engagement unless the contract expressly sets a delivery price under the contract that exceeds $300,000. or if the contract has a term of more than 12 months, US$1 million, with a commercial table potato producer for the supply of commercial table potatoes on terms generally less favourable than those set out in the company`s model agreement in Schedule “A”. The agreement in Annex A offers, inter alia, the possibility for producers to sell potatoes to other parties if producers are not satisfied with the price they have received from Mitolo. In addition, the Federal Court ordered Mitolo to pay a fine of $240,000 for violations of the Horticultural Code of Conduct with respect to 19 contracts with potato growers arising from the trade with Mitolo under contracts to be agreed upon in writing with the growers. is not specified. Mitolo was also ordered to pay $50,000 in costs to the ACCC. To resolve the case, Mitolo confessed to the court and, along with the ACCC, took a position on the appropriate sentence to impose. The formation of the plenary in this case AM2016/5 after the resignation of Vice-President Watson is discussed in CLAUSE AM2015/1 – Domestic and Domestic Violence.
. This obligation follows the decision of the proceedings initiated by the ACCC on 25 June 2018 before the Federal Supreme Court of Australia in the VID 758 case of 2018 against Mitolo and Maranello. This award is also part of the reformulation process of the 4-year exam in plain language. . Documents relating to the formation of the plenum can be found under AM2015/1 – Clause on Domestic and Family Violence. The documents relating to plain language drafting and the final phase procedure AM2019/17 can be found on page AM2016/15 – Recast in plain language. .