Subscription terms and conditions

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The Sydney Morning Herald

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The Sydney Morning Herald

Subscription Terms and Conditions

Updated: August 15, 2021

If you are a subscriber of a digital and/or print publication from the Nine Publishing group (“Nine”, “we” , “our” or “us”) then these terms and conditions apply to your subscription. Our print and digital publications are The Age (theage.com.au), The Australian Financial Review (afr.com), Brisbane Times (brisbanetimes.com.au), The Sydney Morning Herald (smh.com.au) and WAtoday (watoday.com.au) (“Publications”). The Age Company Pty Limited is the publisher of The Age and Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd and/or Fairfax Digital Australia and New Zealand Pty Ltd is the publishers of the other Publications.

Your use of our digital services (which includes amongst other things, websites and applications) to access the Publications is also subject to our Terms of General Conditions of Use available at Terms of Use. If you access Publications via applications you may also be subject to third party terms such as the Apple Terms of Service, available at Apple Terms and Conditions. If you purchased your digital subscription via a third party (e.g. the Apple App Store, Google Play), your subscription may be subject to different terms and conditions as determined by that third party and you will need to raise any issues you may have directly with the third party. We will not have any liability to you in relation to these types of subscriptions.

  1. Contacting us

      If you have an individual subscription, you can contact the customer service team by:

      • Submitting a request here.
      • Phoning 13 66 66 or +61 2 7966 6900 between 7.30am-5.30pm AEST Mon-Fri and 7.30am-10.30am AEST Sat-Sun.

      If you have a Corporate subscription, you can contact the customer service team (Corporate) by:

  2. Your subscription

    1. Your subscription gives you digital and/or print access to the Publication you subscribed to during your subscription period. If there are different tiers of subscription for a Publication then your subscription only gives you access to the tier for which you subscribed. Print access involves home delivery and includes all parts and sections of the Publication deemed part of the Publication for home delivery in your area (please note that this may change from time to time in accordance with Nine's logistics and operational requirements).
    2. All Digital and Premium Digital access means unlimited access to our digital services on any device for the particular Publication(s) to which you have subscribed.
    3. We reserve the right to reject any order for subscription at any time. Subscription fees are not refundable except to the extent expressly set out in these terms and conditions.
    4. We reserve the right to modify the content, inclusions, type and availability of any digital product at any time. We also reserve the right to enable free access to part or all of our Publications for periods of time and you will not be eligible for a full or partial refund of your subscription fees if we do this.
    5. We are not responsible and have no liability for any claim relating to a situation where you have entered incorrect details as your contact details in your subscription order. It will be your responsibility to report any such errors to us as soon as you become aware of this and if we decide to provide you with any credit as a result, such credit may (at our option) take the form of an extension to your subscription expiry date or a reduction in the price of your next subscription payment.
    6. We will not be liable to you for any loss or damage that you or any other person may incur in connection with your subscription, whether direct, indirect, consequential or otherwise. In any case, our maximum liability to you directly or indirectly in relation to your subscription is limited to an amount equal to the subscription fees paid by you to us in the 12 month period before the claim.
    7. Your subscription is for your personal use only. You are not permitted to use your subscription for any commercial purpose, including to on-sell your subscription to any third party. If you wish to obtain a multiple user subscription, you may qualify for a corporate subscription. Please speak to our Corporate customer service for more information.
    8. Payment may be made by your nominated payment method which can include direct debit. Your subscription automatically renews for the next period at the end of each billing cycle and you will be charged unless you cancel before then (see section 7). Where you pay by direct debit, it is your responsibility to make sure you have enough clear funds in your bank account for the direct debit payment to be deducted.
    9. It is your responsibility to check your bank account statements to make sure that the correct amounts are being debited from your account and to let the customer service know if you believe you are being billed incorrectly.
    10. You are responsible for making sure your payment details are always valid and up-to-date – you can do this online – visit My Account or contact the customer service team.
    11. We can cancel your subscription and revoke your access to our Publications if your subscription payment is rejected for any reason. You will then need to resubscribe and the same subscription package will not necessarily be made available to you.
    12. If for some unforeseen reason your complete access to our digital Publications is unavailable for a continuous period of more than 24 hours due to a matter within our control, you may be eligible (at our discretion) for a credit of a pro-rated amount for the period of the service outage. For the avoidance of doubt if you are unable to access our services due to problems not related to Nine then you are not eligible for a refund or credit of any nature.
    13. Some print subscriptions do not renew automatically and subscribers will receive a renewal notice for these subscriptions.
    14. If you are experiencing any technical issues in accessing your digital subscription, it is your responsibility to contact the customer service team directly for assistance. We reserve the right to refuse any request for credits, refunds, or extensions if you have not asked us for assistance within 48 hours of experiencing an issue.
    15. You may pay by credit card or debit card at the time of subscription. If you pay by credit card, we may add a credit card surcharge (currently 0.5% but subject to annual review) which reflects no more than the costs of acceptance to us of processing your payment subscription charges. You may also pay by direct debit from your nominated bank account after your subscription has been activated. There is no surcharge for payments by debit card or direct debit.
    16. Your login details may be used in up to 6 concurrent sessions and should not be shared with anyone else. If we detect or suspect any misuse of your login details for any reason, we may terminate your subscription and no refunds will be given.
    17. Using your subscription may mean you will incur other expenses (e.g. internet fees, data fees and/or service provider fees) and you will obviously be responsible for these extra expenses.
    18. If you have a Corporate subscription, these terms and conditions apply except to the extent there is a conflict between these terms and conditions and the terms and conditions of your Enterprise Licence Agreement or Team Licence Agreement, in which case the relevant term and condition of your Enterprise Licence Agreement or Team Licence Agreement will prevail.

  3. Pricing

    1. We charge in Australian dollars and you agree to pay the subscription price at the payment intervals stated at the time you order your subscription. Discounts only apply if they are included in your subscription order and we will not backdate discounts.
    2. We can change our pricing and fees at any time. We will give you at least 14 days’ notice if the new price is greater than the price you received at the commencement of your subscription. If you have a fixed term subscription, the new price will be shown in your renewal notice. If you have an auto-renew subscription, the new price will be notified to you by email. For auto-renew subscriptions, the new price won’t apply until your next billing date after the notice. Of course, if you would prefer to cancel your subscription, you are free to do so before the end of the direct debit/credit card billing cycle (see section 7 below).

  4. Promotions

    1. If you subscribe as part of one of our special promotions or offers then the specific terms and conditions of that promotion or offer will also apply - if any of the promotion terms and conditions conflict with these terms and conditions then these terms and conditions will override the promotion terms and conditions.
    2. You will likely be required to provide your direct debit/credit card payment details when you sign up for a promotion or offer and your subscription will then renew automatically at the end of the promotional period at the standard subscription price unless you cancel.
    3. If we cancel your promotional subscription for any reason (e.g. non-payment), you may not be able to later re-subscribe at the same promotional price.

  5. Managing your subscription

    1. You can manage your account, change your personal details or your payment plan and upgrade/downgrade your subscription online in the ‘My Account’ or ‘Support Centre’ section of our websites or by contacting the customer service team for help.
    2. Upgrades are billed from your next billing cycle but you will get immediate access to the upgraded digital product. Downgrades of print and digital products will take effect from your next billing cycle. If you have a print product, we will need up to 10 working days to make the change to your home delivery.

  6. Suspending or redirecting print

    1. You can activate a suspension of your home delivery print product for up to 60 continuous days via the ‘My Account’ or the ‘Support Centre’ section of our websites or by contacting our customer service team for help. We need at least 3 business days’ notice to effect the suspension. When you suspend your home delivery, we will grant you an extension of your subscription renewal date or a credit on your account after the suspension period has ended. If you have digital access as part of your subscription this will still be available to you during the suspension period at no extra cost. You cannot suspend a digital only subscription.
    2. If you wish to modify your delivery suspension, you can do so at any time by contacting the customer service team or by visiting the Support Centre section of our website.
    3. If you wish to redirect your home delivery to a new address in our deliverable area, you should contact our customer service team. We will need at least 5 working days to effect this redirection.

  7. Cancelling your subscription

    1. You can request cancellation of your subscription by contacting our customer service team. Cancellation won’t be effective until we have received all relevant information from you and until the end of your current billing cycle (note that your cancellation request must be made at least 72 hours before your next subscription payment is due).
    2. If you ordered your print and/or digital subscription via our telemarketing channels then you have the right to cancel via contacting our customer service team within 10 business days from the subscription start date. These 10 business days are your cooling off period.
    3. If you cancel an annual prepaid subscription, you may be entitled to a prorated refund if there is more than one month left on your prepaid subscription.
    4. We can cancel or suspend your subscription at any time at our discretion but we will act reasonably. If we cancel your subscription, we may give you a prorated refund if you have pre-paid your subscription.
    5. We will not refund past subscription payments if you have not contacted our customer service team directly to cancel your subscription. We also will not refund past subscription payments if you do not contact our customer service team to report unexpected deductions from your bank account within 3 months of the deduction.
    6. We are not responsible for any missed or unwanted deliveries or any unexpected charges resulting from requests made by you to any newsagency or other third party rather than directly to our customer service team.
    7. It should be noted that opting out of receiving newsletters or any other email communication otherwise related to your subscription will not constitute cancellation of your subscription.

  8. Newspaper delivery terms (print)

    1. Subscriptions that include a print product for home (or office) delivery are only possible within our standard delivery area. It should be noted that these standard delivery areas do not extend out of state i.e. The Age is only delivered in certain parts of Victoria, The Sydney Morning Herald in certain parts of NSW and the ACT and the AFR in certain parts of Australia. For more information, contact our customer service team.
    2. Delivery to addresses in our standard delivery area that are located in apartments, office buildings, retirement and aged care facilities will depend on whether we have distribution available to service the relevant address. We will notify you of any discontinuance of your delivery where we no longer have distribution available to your address or if distribution to your address is considered difficult by our delivery service providers. If we discontinue delivery to you for this reason, we will give you a prorated refund of any prepaid subscription fees where services will not be provided.
    3. Some subscribers may not receive various inserts and magazines that form part of our print products due to logistical or other limitations, particularly in non-metropolitan areas. We will not provide any refund for this.
    4. If you notify us that your print product has not been delivered within 3 days of the missed delivery date and we can verify this, we will credit your account for the day(s) that your print product was not delivered. We can provide this credit by extending your subscription term by the equivalent number of days or by giving you a pro-rata credit on your next subscription payment (at our option).
    5. It is your responsibility to report any deliveries of newspapers that you receive, or any subscription payments that continue to be deducted, after you have cancelled your subscription to the customer service team.

  9. Privacy

    1. You acknowledge and agree that certain personal information (which may include your name, address, email address, year of birth, postcode and mobile/telephone number) may be collected and stored by us and used to, amongst other things, manage your subscription, communicate with you about your subscription and to notify you of any associated customer offers or benefits, future subscriptions and/or other goods and services that we consider you may be interested in, unless you opt out of these communications.
    2. Information on how we handle your personal information is detailed in our Privacy Policy. You can obtain further information on our Privacy Policy by visiting Privacy.

  10. General

    1. Any offer of subscription and any subscription purchased is deemed to be provided to you in Australia, even if you are located elsewhere. We target our Publications to audiences based in Australia. These terms and conditions are governed by the laws of New South Wales and the courts of New South Wales, Australia have exclusive jurisdiction to decide any matters involving us in relation to your subscription and/or these terms and conditions.
    2. These subscription terms and conditions are available on our websites at the following links and may be changed by us at any time in our discretion, including but not limited to terms relating to fees and charges, cancellation and modifying your subscription. Such changes will be effective when amended terms and conditions are posted on our websites. We will try to provide you with timely notice of any material changes and you will be welcome to cancel your subscription within 30 days of any material changes if you do not agree to them: