Event Management Agreement Lawyers Adelaide: Weddings, Corporate Events, Deposits and Cancellations
Event management agreements in South Australia
An event management agreement decides who carries the cost when a client cancels or a supplier lets the event down. Talon Legal drafts and reviews event management agreements for Adelaide wedding planners and corporate event managers, and for clients checking a planner’s terms before they pay a deposit. Book a same-day free 30-minute consultation or call (08) 7094 2021.
Event management agreement key facts
| Issue | Position in South Australia |
|---|---|
| Supplier bookings | The agreement should say whether suppliers are booked as the client's agent or in the event manager's own name. |
| Consumer clients | Anyone paying $100,000 or less for services, or buying services of a kind ordinarily acquired for personal, domestic or household use (ACL section 3(3); regulation 77A). |
| Service guarantees | Due care and skill, fitness for a purpose the consumer makes known, and supply within a reasonable time where none is fixed (sections 60, 61(1) and 62). They cannot be excluded (section 64(1)). |
| Business events | For services not ordinarily acquired for personal use, liability can be limited to supplying the services again or its cost, unless that is not fair or reasonable (section 64A). |
| Cancellation fees | A sum payable on default is open to challenge if out of all proportion to the interests it protects (Paciocco v ANZ, Kiefel J (French CJ agreeing) at [29]). |
| Unfair terms | Void in a standard form consumer or small business contract (section 23(1)). Making such a contract with an unfair term the business proposed, or relying on one, is a contravention (section 23(2A) and (2C)). |
| Maximum penalty | Body corporate: the greater of $100,000,000 and three times the benefit or, if that cannot be determined, 30% of adjusted turnover. Anyone else: $2,500,000 (section 224). |
| Guest data | A business covered by the Privacy Act must take reasonable steps to protect personal information it holds (APP 11.1). |
| First step | Same-day free 30-minute consultation. Call (08) 7094 2021. |
Need an event management agreement lawyer in Adelaide?
Our event management agreement lawyers in Adelaide act for wedding planners and corporate event managers, and for clients checking a planner’s terms before they sign. The agreement sets the planning work, the fee, how suppliers are booked and paid, and what happens if the event is cancelled or postponed. The Australian Consumer Law (ACL), in Schedule 2 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth), adds guarantees that cannot be excluded for consumer clients and makes unfair terms in standard form consumer and small business contracts void. This page states the law current to 6 November 2026.
This guide is part of our skilled trades and licensed industries practice. Related guides cover equipment hire agreements, deeds of guarantee and service agreements and terms of business.
Sponsors, and organisers seeking sponsors, can start with our guide to sponsorship agreements.
For the photographer or videographer at an event, see our guide to photography terms and conditions.
Free Consultation. Send us your event terms, or the agreement a planner has asked you to sign. Book a same-day free 30-minute consultation or call (08) 7094 2021.
On this page
- What should an event management agreement cover?
- Does the event manager book suppliers as agent or principal?
- How should deposits and payments be scheduled?
- What happens if the event is cancelled or postponed?
- Can an event manager keep a deposit or charge a cancellation fee?
- Which consumer guarantees apply to weddings and private events?
- How should liability and insurance be handled?
- Which terms could be unfair?
- What can an event manager promise in its marketing?
- How should guest data be protected?
- How similar matters tend to play out
- How we act on event management agreements
- Case law
- Frequently asked questions
What should an event management agreement cover?
The brief comes first: the event, its date and venue, guest numbers and what the event manager will do. Most agreements cover planning and supplier management before the event, then coordination on the day under a run sheet. Exclusions should be listed too.
The fee needs the same care. Some event managers charge a fixed management fee, others a percentage of the total event cost with a minimum, and supplier costs are usually extra. A budget prepared at the start is an estimate, and the agreement should say so and say how changes are approved in writing.
An event management agreement lawyer will also read the scope for what it promises a consumer client. Services must be reasonably fit for any purpose the consumer makes known (ACL section 61(1)).
Some event managers also hire out furniture or styling items, which need hire terms covering a bond, damage and loss. Supplying goods includes supplying them by way of hire (section 2(1)), so the guarantees for goods, such as acceptable quality (section 54), can apply to items hired to a consumer.
Does the event manager book suppliers as agent or principal?
That depends on the business model, and the agreement should say which. Many event managers book venues, caterers and other suppliers as the client’s agent, and the client pays each supplier on that supplier’s terms. Others book in their own name, pay the suppliers and charge the client a single price.
The choice decides who carries supplier risk. An agency agreement should authorise the bookings expressly, say whether the client approves each supplier first, and pass supplier deposits, cancellation charges and refunds through to the client. Under a principal model the event manager contracts with the suppliers itself, so its own price and cancellation terms must cover their charges.
Mixed arrangements cause disputes, so the paperwork and the way bookings are made should match.
Indemnities need limits. A clause making the client indemnify the event manager for any loss connected with the event, however caused, goes beyond what an agency model needs. In ACCC v JJ Richards & Sons Pty Ltd [2017] FCA 1224, the Court accepted that an unlimited indemnity, applying even where the loss was not the customer’s fault, created a significant imbalance ([56](g)).
How should deposits and payments be scheduled?
In stages that follow the event manager’s commitments. A common pattern is an engagement fee on signing, instalments as suppliers are booked, and the balance after the event once costs are reconciled.
The agreement should say what each payment covers, when it is due, and whether any part is non-refundable and why. A deposit that matches the planning work done and the commitments made at booking is easier to justify than a large sum kept whatever happens. In a standard form consumer or small business contract, a term that favours the event manager is presumed not to be reasonably necessary to protect its legitimate interests unless it proves otherwise (ACL section 24(4)).
Late payment fees are sums payable on default, so the test below applies to them too. For a company client with large supplier commitments, a director’s guarantee may be sensible; the deeds of guarantee guide covers it.
What happens if the event is cancelled or postponed?
Whatever the agreement provides. It needs separate terms for cancellation by the client, for postponement and for events outside either party’s control.
Cancellation is usually handled by a scale: the later the cancellation, the more of the management fee is payable, plus supplier charges already paid or committed. The agreement should say how notice is given and that the event manager will try to reduce supplier charges.
Postponement needs its own clause. The client wants deposits carried across, and the event manager wants new supplier costs and its extra time covered. The clause should say how often and by when the date can move.
A force majeure clause deals with events beyond either party’s control, such as severe weather or government limits on gatherings. It should define the events, require prompt notice and suspend the obligations affected. It should let either party end the agreement if the event continues past a set period, and deal with money already paid, including supplier deposits that cannot be recovered.
In a standard form consumer or small business contract, a term permitting one party only to avoid or limit performance, or to terminate, is a statutory example of a term that may be unfair (ACL section 25(a) and (b)).
Can an event manager keep a deposit or charge a cancellation fee?
Yes, if the agreement provides for it and the amount can be justified. A fee payable on the client’s default engages the penalty doctrine. In Paciocco v Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd [2016] HCA 28, Kiefel J, with whom French CJ agreed, said the question is whether a provision for payment of a sum on default is out of all proportion to the interests of the party it is meant to protect. Those interests may be business or financial ones ([29]).
An event manager has real interests to point to: the planning time already spent and the bookings it turned away for the date, plus supplier charges it cannot recover. A scale tied to notice and to those costs sits comfortably with Kiefel J’s test. The whole management fee at any notice, a year out, is much harder to defend.
The unfair terms law adds a second test. A term that penalises only one party for breach or termination is a statutory example of a term that may be unfair (ACL section 25(c)), and the event manager would carry the burden of showing it is reasonably necessary (section 24(4)).
Which consumer guarantees apply to weddings and private events?
The service guarantees, whenever the client is a consumer. A person acquires services as a consumer if the amount paid or payable did not exceed $100,000 (ACL section 3(3)(a); regulation 77A of the Competition and Consumer Regulations 2010), or if they are of a kind ordinarily acquired for personal, domestic or household use (section 3(3)(b)). A couple planning a wedding will usually meet both tests. The price test does not ask who the client is, so it also catches many corporate bookings.
The services must be rendered with due care and skill (section 60), be reasonably fit for any purpose the consumer makes known (section 61(1)), and be supplied within a reasonable time where none is fixed (section 62). A term is void to the extent it purports to exclude, restrict or modify those guarantees, or has that effect (section 64(1)).
Misstating those rights is risky too. In ACCC v Booktopia Pty Ltd [2023] FCA 194, Booktopia accepted that publishing a term requiring notice of faulty items within two business days represented that consumers had to notify within that time to have a remedy ([15], [18]). A $6,000,000 penalty was imposed for its contraventions of section 29(1)(m), which concerns false or misleading representations about the existence, exclusion or effect of any guarantee, right or remedy. A “no refunds in any circumstances” clause raises the same question.
How should liability and insurance be handled?
Differently for consumers and for business events. For services not ordinarily acquired for personal, domestic or household use, liability for breach of a guarantee may be limited to supplying the services again or paying the cost of having them supplied again (ACL section 64A(2)). That does not apply if the client shows that relying on the limit would not be fair or reasonable (section 64A(3)). The test looks at the services rather than the client. Planning a conference may qualify; planning a wedding will not, even if a company pays for it.
Most event terms also exclude liability for suppliers’ failures and cap the event manager’s liability, often at the management fee. Such clauses are construed by their natural and ordinary meaning, read in the light of the contract as a whole and its nature and object, and where appropriate against the party that put them forward if ambiguous (Darlington Futures Ltd v Delco Australia Pty Ltd [1986] HCA 82 at [16]). A supplier exclusion should not appear to reach the event manager’s own mistakes, such as booking the wrong date.
Insurance
An event manager should hold public liability cover, and ask venues and suppliers for certificates of currency for theirs. The agreement should say who insures hired items at the venue, and for a large event it can suggest the client consider cancellation insurance.
Which terms could be unfair?
Terms in a standard form consumer or small business contract that fail the test in section 24. Such a term is void, and the contract continues if it can operate without it (ACL section 23(1) and (2)). A small business contract is one where at least one party employs fewer than 100 persons or had turnover under $10,000,000 in its last income year (section 23(4)). A contract is presumed to be standard form unless another party proves otherwise (section 27(1)).
A term is unfair if it would cause a significant imbalance in the parties’ rights and obligations, is not reasonably necessary to protect the legitimate interests of the party it advantages, and would cause detriment if relied on (section 24(1)). The Act’s examples include a right for one party alone to vary the terms (section 25(d)), or to vary the upfront price without the other having a right to terminate (section 25(f)). Deemed acceptance of a revised budget after a day or two of silence works in much the same way.
In JJ Richards, the Court accepted that a term allowing price increases for any reason, with no right to terminate or to obtain a change of scope or a lower price, created a significant imbalance ([56](b)).
Unfair terms were then void but not penalised. Since 9 November 2023, making a standard form consumer or small business contract containing an unfair term the business proposed, or applying or relying on one, is a contravention, and each term counts separately (section 23(2A) to (2C)). The maximum penalty for a body corporate is the greater of $100,000,000 and three times the benefit or, if that cannot be determined, 30% of adjusted turnover during the breach turnover period. For anyone else it is $2,500,000 (section 224(3) and (3A)).
What can an event manager promise in its marketing?
Only what it can deliver. A person must not, in trade or commerce, engage in conduct that is misleading or deceptive or likely to mislead or deceive (ACL section 18(1)). A representation about a future matter is taken to be misleading if the person had no reasonable grounds for making it (section 4(1)). The risk lies in specific promises, such as that a venue or date is held or that the event will come in on budget.
Photos and testimonials need permission. Many event terms let the event manager use photographs of the event and the client’s name in its marketing. The clause should be clear, and the client should be able to say no. Guests have not signed anything, so images of identifiable guests need more care. Testimonials should be genuine, because a false or misleading representation that purports to be a testimonial is prohibited (section 29(1)(e)).
How should guest data be protected?
Like any other customer data, since guest lists hold names, contact details and often dietary and access needs. Whether an event business has obligations under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) needs checking, and part of that check is the small business operator test in section 6D.
A business is a small business if its annual turnover for the previous financial year was $3,000,000 or less (section 6D(1)). A small business operator carries on one or more small businesses and no business that is not small (section 6D(3)). A business that discloses personal information for a benefit, service or advantage, or provides one to collect personal information from anyone else, is not a small business operator (section 6D(4)(c) and (d)). An event business that passes attendee lists to sponsors should look closely at those provisions. The data protection and privacy guide explains what follows from the test.
A business covered by the Act must take steps reasonable in the circumstances to protect personal information it holds from misuse, interference and loss, and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure (APP 11.1). Those steps include technical and organisational measures (APP 11.3).
How similar matters tend to play out
Three illustrations of how the law on this page combines on ordinary facts. They are not predictions. Outcome depends on the documents, the evidence and the court.
Lower range. A wedding planner’s terms say “no refunds in any circumstances”. The planner forgets to confirm the ceremony musicians, who do not arrive. The couple are consumers (section 3(3)(b)), and the services had to be rendered with due care and skill (section 60). The term is void to the extent it excludes that guarantee (section 64(1)), and its wording invites the kind of representation Booktopia accepted it had made ([18]). A refund clause that preserves ACL rights fixes it.
Middle range. A company cancels its conference three months out. Its agreement says the event manager booked the venue and caterer as its agent and that the company bears their cancellation charges, and the management fee scale reaches 50% at that notice. Because the scale tracks notice and the work done, it sits comfortably with Kiefel J’s test in Paciocco ([29]).
Upper range. An events business uses one set of standard terms for all clients, most of them consumers or small businesses. The terms let it change them by notice and treat silence as acceptance of a revised budget, and it relies on them to add fees after booking. Those are statutory examples of terms that may be unfair (section 25(d) and (f)). Relying on them risks a contravention (section 23(2C)), and the maximum penalty for a company is at least $100,000,000 (section 224(3A)).
How we act on event management agreements
We act for wedding planners and event managers, and for the clients who engage them. For an event business, the aim is terms that hold up when a client cancels. For a client, it is a clear scope and fair cancellation terms. Our event management agreement lawyers start from the documents you already use.
| Stage | What happens | What we do |
|---|---|---|
| Review | Terms or a planner's agreement are sent for advice. | Check consumer status, the guarantees, unfair terms and the cancellation scale. |
| Drafting | Terms and a booking form are prepared. | Draft scope, supplier authority, payment stages, cancellation, postponement and force majeure terms. |
| Bookings | The client signs and suppliers are engaged. | Set up signed or online acceptance and a supplier approval step. |
| Dispute | An event is cancelled or goes wrong. | Advise on the agreement and the guarantees, and draft the next letter. |
| Update | The business or the law changes. | Review the terms and the marketing claims beside them. |
We cannot promise an outcome, and no lawyer can. We can make sure your terms say what you mean and hold up when tested.
Every hour matters. Book a same-day free 30-minute consultation, or call (08) 7094 2021 now.
Event management case law
None of the decisions below concerned an event management agreement; each decided a point that applies to one.
| Case | Court | Principle | Pinpoint |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paciocco v Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd [2016] HCA 28 | High Court | Test for a sum payable on default | [29] |
| ACCC v JJ Richards & Sons Pty Ltd [2017] FCA 1224 | Federal Court | Price variation and unlimited indemnity terms unfair | [56] to [58] |
| ACCC v Booktopia Pty Ltd [2023] FCA 194 | Federal Court | Terms misstating consumer remedies | [15], [18] |
| Darlington Futures Ltd v Delco Australia Pty Ltd [1986] HCA 82 | High Court | Construing exclusion and limitation clauses | [16], [19] |
Case notes
Paciocco v Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd [2016] HCA 28
Kiefel J, with whom French CJ agreed, asked whether a provision for payment of a sum on default is out of all proportion to the interests it is meant to protect, which may be business or financial interests ([29]). Both appeals were dismissed with costs.
ACCC v JJ Richards & Sons Pty Ltd [2017] FCA 1224
Moshinsky J declared eight terms of small business standard form contracts unfair and void. The Court accepted that the price variation and unlimited indemnity terms caused a significant imbalance ([56](b) and (g)), and that the supplier had not shown they were reasonably necessary ([57] to [58]).
ACCC v Booktopia Pty Ltd [2023] FCA 194
Booktopia accepted that its two business day notification term represented that consumers had to notify within that time to have a remedy ([15], [18]). A $6,000,000 penalty was imposed for the section 29(1)(m) contraventions.
Darlington Futures Ltd v Delco Australia Pty Ltd [1986] HCA 82
The High Court held that exclusion and limitation clauses are construed by their natural and ordinary meaning, in the light of the whole contract, and where appropriate against the party that put them forward if ambiguous ([16]). A clause limiting a broker’s liability to $100 for each unauthorised contract applied ([19]).
Frequently asked questions
Is a wedding planner's deposit refundable?
It depends on the agreement. A deposit matched to the work done and commitments made at booking is easier to justify, and in a standard form consumer or small business contract a term penalising only the client for cancellation may be unfair (ACL section 25(c)).
Can an event manager charge a cancellation fee?
Yes, if the agreement provides for it. A fee payable on the client’s default that is out of all proportion to the interests it protects is open to challenge (Paciocco v ANZ, Kiefel J (French CJ agreeing) at [29]).
Who pays supplier cancellation charges if an event is cancelled?
Whoever the agreement makes responsible. An agency agreement usually passes them to the client; an event manager booking in its own name usually carries them.
What happens if bad weather or government restrictions stop an event?
What the force majeure clause says. It should define the events covered, require notice, suspend the obligations affected and say what happens to money already paid.
Do the consumer guarantees apply to wedding planning?
Usually, yes. Services of a kind ordinarily acquired for personal, domestic or household use are acquired as a consumer (ACL section 3(3)(b)), and they must be rendered with due care and skill (section 60).
Are corporate event clients protected by consumer law?
Often, yes. A client that pays $100,000 or less for services acquires them as a consumer, even if it is a company (ACL section 3(3)(a) and regulation 77A).
Can an event manager limit its liability?
Within the ACL’s limits. For a consumer, a term cannot exclude, restrict or modify the guarantees (section 64(1)). For services not ordinarily acquired for personal use, liability can be limited to supplying the services again or its cost, unless that is not fair or reasonable (section 64A).
Can an event business post photos of a client's event?
With the client’s permission, which the agreement should record. Images of identifiable guests need more care, because guests have not agreed to anything.
Does an event business have to protect guest information?
If it is covered by the Privacy Act, yes: it must take reasonable steps to protect personal information it holds (APP 11.1). Coverage turns partly on the small business operator test (section 6D).
Do I need an event management agreement lawyer?
For terms you will use with every client, yes. An event management agreement lawyer can test the cancellation and refund clauses against the ACL before the next booking, when changes cost least. A free 30-minute consultation will tell you where you stand.