Updated: 15 November, 2023
If you become a subscriber of a digital and/or print publication from the Nine Publishing group (“Nine”, “we” , “our” or “us”) then these terms apply to your subscription. Please read these terms before taking up any 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 are the publishers of the other Publications.
Your use of our digital services (which includes 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 to the extent that the terms of those subscriptions conflict with these terms.
1. Contacting us
If you have an individual subscription, you can contact the Customer Service Team by:
- Submitting a request for the relevant publication:
- 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:
- Emailing corporate@afr.com
- Calling 1800 237 266 Mon - Fri 9.00am – 5.00pm AEST
2. Your subscription
a. Your subscription gives you digital and/or print access to the Publication you subscribed to while your subscription is active. If there are different tiers of subscription for a Publication, your subscription gives you access to the tier for which you subscribed. Print access involves home delivery of those parts of the Publication which can be home delivered in your area.
b. All Digital and Premium Digital access means unlimited access to our digital services on any device for the Publication(s) to which you have subscribed.
c. Subscription fees are not refundable except to the extent expressly set out in these terms.
d. We may modify the content, inclusions, type and availability of any digital product at any time for example by adding new content sections, or the functionality of the digital service such as releasing a new version of the app for the publication to which you have subscribed. We may also 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.
e. We are not responsible and have no liability for any claim relating to payment, delivery or access to a Publication which resulted from you providing incorrect information to us. You need to report any such errors to us as soon as you become aware of them. We may then decide to give you a credit, extend your subscription expiry date or reduce your next subscription payment.
f. Apart from giving the refunds, credits or extension of your subscription as set out in these terms, 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 other than with respect to any rights you may have under the Consumer and Competition Act 2010 (Cth) or other law or which result from our negligence, wilful acts or omissions or material breach of these terms. 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.
g. Your subscription is for your personal use only. You are not permitted to share your log-in details with another person or 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 via the contact details in section 1.
h. When you purchase your subscription directly from us, you can pay for your subscription by direct debit, credit card, debit card or by PayPal. 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). When you pay by direct debit for your subscription or renewals, you must make sure you have enough clear funds in your bank account for the payment to be deducted. If payment fails, we will attempt to notify you and request that you update your payment details. We will reattempt payment several times over 7- 14 days and allow your subscription to remain active in that time. After that time, we will cancel your subscription and you will be notified. If we suspect that fraudulent information has been provided in relation to your direct debit arrangement, we may cancel the payment method, notify you of the cancellation and request you to pay by an alternative method.
i. If you believe that the incorrect amount has been debited from your bank account or that you are otherwise being billed incorrectly, let our customer service know immediately via the contact details set out in section 1.
j. You must make sure your payment details are always valid and up-to-date – you can do this online – visit My Account or contact our customer service team via the contact details in section 1.
k. If we revoke your access to our Publications due to payment issues, you will need to resubscribe. The same subscription package will not necessarily be made available to you.
l. 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, we will either extend your subscription for the corresponding amount of time, or give a credit of a pro-rated amount for the period of the service outage. If you are unable to access our services due to problems not related to Nine then you will not be eligible for a refund or credit of any nature.
m. Some print subscriptions do not renew automatically and subscribers will receive a renewal notice for these subscriptions. You need to renew your subscription before the expiry date, to ensure you continue to receive your printed newspaper.
n. If you are experiencing technical issues in accessing your digital subscription, you need to contact the customer service team directly for assistance via the contact details set out in section 1. We may refuse any request for credits, refunds, or extensions if you have not asked us for assistance within 7 days of experiencing an issue because, after this time, we might not have all the information necessary to properly investigate the issue.
o. Your login details may be used in up to 6 concurrent sessions and must not be shared with anyone else. If we detect or suspect any misuse of your login details for any reason, we will contact you and may suspend your subscription. If the matter cannot be resolved to our reasonable satisfaction, we may terminate your subscription and no refunds will be given. Misuse may take the form of an unusually high number of articles being accessed over a short period of time which indicates that more than one person is using the login details. You must contact our customer service team if you become aware that unauthorised use of your username and password has occurred. We may also cancel your subscription due to any aggressive behaviour, harassment or threats towards us.
p. You will incur other costs (eg data fees and service provider fees) when you use your digital subscription. You will be responsible for these costs.
q. If you have a Corporate subscription, these terms apply except to the extent there is a conflict between these terms and the terms of your Enterprise Licence Agreement or Team Licence Agreement, in which case the relevant term of your Enterprise Licence Agreement or Team Licence Agreement will prevail.
3. Pricing
a. 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.
b. 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 are currently paying. If you have a fixed term subscription, the new price will be shown in your renewal notice. If you have an auto-renew subscription, we will notify you by email (to the address connected to your subscription) of the new price. For auto-renew subscriptions, the new price will apply from your next billing date after the notice. If you would prefer to cancel your subscription, you may do so before the end of the billing cycle (see section 7).
4. Promotions
a. If you subscribe as part of a special promotion or offer, the specific terms of that promotion or offer will also apply - if the promotion terms conflict with these terms, those promotion terms override these terms.
b. You will 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.
c. If we cancel your promotional subscription in accordance with these terms, you may not be able to re-subscribe at the same promotional price.
5. Managing your subscription
a. You can manage your account, change your personal details or your payment plan and upgrade/downgrade your subscription online in the ‘My Account’ or ‘Help Centre’ section of our websites or by contacting our Customer Service Team for help via the contact details set out in section 1.
b. 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
a. You can suspend your home delivery print product for up to 60 continuous days via the ‘My Account’ or the ‘Help Centre’ section of our websites or by contacting our customer service team via the contact details set out in section 1. We need at least 3 business days’ notice to effect the suspension. When you suspend your home delivery, we will extend your subscription renewal date or apply 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. You cannot suspend your subscription for more than 90 days in a 12 month period.
b. If you wish to modify your delivery suspension, you can do so at any time by contacting our Customer Service Team via the contact details set out in section 1 or by visiting the ‘Help Centre’ section of our website.
c. If you wish to redirect your home delivery to a new address in our deliverable area, you should contact our Customer Service Team via the contact details set out in section 1. We will need at least 7 working days to effect this redirection.
7. Cancelling your subscription
a. You can request cancellation of your subscription by contacting our Customer Service Team via the contact details set out in section 1. Since you pay in advance for your subscription, cancellation won’t be effective until (at the earliest) 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). You will continue to receive access to your subscription until cancellation is effective.
b. If you ordered your print and/or digital subscription via our telemarketing personnel then you have the right to cancel via contacting our Customer Service Team via the contact details set out in section 1 within 10 working days from the subscription start date. These 10 working days are your cooling off period.
c. 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. We do not make partial refunds for any other type of subscription such as monthly billed subscriptions.
d. We can cancel or suspend your subscription on 14 days’ notice 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.
e. We only refund past subscription payments if you contact our customer service team to report deductions that you did not expect from your bank account within 3 months of the deduction.
f. 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.
g. Opting out of receiving newsletters or any other email communication otherwise related to your subscription will not constitute cancellation of your subscription.
8. Home delivery terms (print)
a. Subscriptions that include a print product for home (or office) delivery are only possible within our standard delivery area. For example, The Age is only delivered in certain parts of Victoria, The Sydney Morning Herald in certain parts of NSW and the ACT and the Australian Financial Review in certain parts of Australia. For more information, contact our customer service team via the contact details in section 1.
b. 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.
c. In rare circumstances, some subscribers may not receive various inserts and magazines that form part of our print products due to logistical or other limitations which are unavoidable, particularly in non-metropolitan areas. We will not provide any refund for this.
d. While we will use reasonable commercial efforts to ensure the delivery of all subscribed print products to your nominated delivery address on the applicable day/s each week, we make no guarantees as to the timeframe within which such print product/s will be delivered to you on those day/s and consequently have no liability to refund you unless clause 8(e) applies.
e. 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 (subject to the package that you have subscribed to).
f. If you receive any deliveries of newspapers after you have cancelled your subscription, please contact the customer service team via the contact details set out in section 1. If any subscription payments continue to be deducted, after you have cancelled your subscription please contact the customer service team via the contact details set out in section 1 and we will refund those payments deducted after cancellation.
9. Privacy
a. You 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.
b. 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
a. 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. The digital Publications may not be viewable or accessible from outside of Australia. These terms 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.
b. These subscription terms are available on our websites at the following links and may be changed by us at any time. Such changes will be effective when amended terms are posted on our websites. We will try to provide you with timely notice of any material changes and may cancel your subscription within 30 days of any material changes if you do not agree to them. You may contact our customer service team (via the contact details set out in section 1) who will consider your position acting reasonably.
