Medical Tourism Agents and the Australian Consumer Law: What You Can Promise and Exclude

Key Takeaways

• An agent that books, arranges or coordinates treatment overseas supplies services to a consumer, so sections 60 to 62 of the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) apply to the booking, information and coordination it provides, section 64 voids any term that excludes them and the section 64A cap is not available against an individual patient.
• Sections 18 and 29 apply to the agent's own statements about a surgeon's qualifications, a clinic's accreditation, what a package includes and the agent's own role. For contraventions from 28 March 2026 the maximum penalty for a body corporate is the greatest of $100 million, three times the benefit or, if the court cannot determine the benefit, 30 per cent of adjusted turnover during the breach turnover period.
• "We are only a booking service" holds while the terms and the marketing say so and the patient is told, before any deposit, who they are contracting with. Selling "our surgeons", "our package" or the agent's own assurances about results is likely to be read as holding out as the supplier of the whole.
• A facilitator's click-through booking terms are a standard form consumer contract under Part 2-3. Since 9 November 2023 each unfair term is a separate contravention, and exclusions that reach the agent's own services, unilateral changes of surgeon or dates and non-refundable deposit clauses are the terms most exposed.
• Whether a coordinator provides a "health service" under section 7(3) of the Health Ombudsman Act 2013 (Qld) is arguable and untested. On privacy, a facilitator that handles medical histories is very likely a health service provider and covered by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) regardless of turnover. No travel agent licence has been required in Queensland since 1 July 2014.

1. 1.Does the Australian Consumer Law apply to a booking service?
2. 2.What can an agent say in its marketing?
3. 3.When does "we are only a booking service" stop being true?
4. 4.Will your terms and conditions hold up?
5. 5.Is a coordinator a health service provider in Queensland?
6. 6.What happens to the patient's health information?
7. 7.Do you need a licence, and what should the paperwork look like?
8. 8.Where this article has to stop
9. 9.What happens next
10. 10.Frequently Asked Questions

An Australian business that books, arranges or coordinates treatment overseas is supplying services to a consumer, so the Australian Consumer Law applies to its promises, its advertising and its terms. Astris Law in Brisbane explains where that exposure sits, when "we only make the booking" stops being accurate and what the paperwork of a carefully run agent contains.

This article is written for the Australian agent, facilitator, booking platform or patient coordinator, not for the clinic.

Does the Australian Consumer Law apply to a booking service?

It applies to the services the agent itself supplies. Under section 3 of the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) a patient who acquires booking and coordination services for personal use, or who pays no more than $100,000 for them, acquires those services as a consumer. Sections 60 to 62 guarantee that those services are performed with due care and skill, are fit for any purpose the patient made known and, where no time is fixed, are done within a reasonable time. Section 64 voids any term that purports to exclude them, and the section 64A cap is unavailable for services ordinarily acquired for personal use. While the business is genuinely an intermediary, the treatment remains the clinic's.

What can an agent say in its marketing?

Only what it can substantiate, and then only where the overall impression is accurate; two further regimes narrow what can be said at all. Section 18 of the ACL prohibits misleading or deceptive conduct and section 29 prohibits false or misleading representations. Both apply to any person in trade or commerce, so they reach the agent's statements about a surgeon's qualifications, a clinic's accreditation, what a package includes and the agent's own role. The Treasury Laws Amendment (Doubling Penalties for ACCC Enforcement) Act 2026 (Cth) commenced on 28 March 2026, and for contraventions from that date the maximum penalty for a body corporate is the greatest of $100 million, three times the benefit or, if the court cannot determine the benefit, 30 per cent of adjusted turnover during the breach turnover period. For an individual the maximum is lower and is set out in our guide to director penalties under the ACL.

The first of the two further regimes is federal. Sections 42DL and 42DLB of the Therapeutic Goods Act 1989 (Cth) apply to any person who advertises therapeutic goods, and prescription-only medicines cannot be advertised to the public at all, so a package page naming a brand of injectable is caught. The second applies where an Australian registered practitioner delivers part of the package: section 133 of the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (Queensland) then applies to whoever advertises it, with its ban on testimonials; our guide to the Ahpra advertising guidelines covers it, and Ahpra's guidelines for practitioners who advertise higher risk non-surgical cosmetic procedures (2 September 2025) add to it.

When does "we are only a booking service" stop being true?

It stops being true the moment the marketing or the contract says otherwise. No reported Australian decision appears to have considered a medical tourism facilitator, so what follows is principle rather than settled law: exposure follows what the agent sells and says, not the word "agent" in its terms. An agent for a disclosed principal, whose terms and marketing name the clinic as the provider and have the patient contract with it, is not a party to the treatment contract, though sections 18, 29 and 60 still reach its own statements and coordination. A business that sells "our surgeons" or "our package", bundles treatment and travel for one amount or gives its own assurances about results is likely to be read as holding itself out as the supplier of the whole. The patient should be told who they are contracting with, and that the clinic pays the agent, before any deposit is taken.

Will your terms and conditions hold up?

The unfair ones will not. Click-through booking terms with an individual patient are a consumer contract and section 27 presumes they are standard form unless the business proves otherwise, so the unfair contract terms regime in Part 2-3 of the ACL applies to them. Section 24 sets the test, and since 9 November 2023 proposing, applying or relying on an unfair term has been a contravention in its own right, each term in each contract counted separately. The terms common in this market that section 25 flags are a blanket exclusion of liability that covers the agent's own booking and coordination as well as the clinic's treatment, a right to change the surgeon, the clinic or the dates without a refund and, arguably, a forum clause pointing at the clinic's country. "No refunds under any circumstances" also misstates the guarantees, which section 29 prohibits.

Is a coordinator a health service provider in Queensland?

The point is arguable and nobody has tested it. Section 7 of the Health Ombudsman Act 2013 (Qld) provides:

(1) A health service is a service that is, or purports to be, a service for maintaining, improving, restoring or managing people's health and wellbeing.

(3) A health service includes a support service for a service mentioned in subsection (1).

Subsection (3) is the only textual basis for applying the Act to a business that arranges but does not deliver care, and nothing has yet applied it to a facilitator. If it applies, the National Code of Conduct for Health Care Workers (Queensland), in force since 1 October 2015 for unregistered providers, binds the agent. Any revision or follow-up procedure done in Queensland rooms also sits under the licensing rules in our guide to Queensland's cosmetic surgery facility rules.

What happens to the patient's health information?

It is sensitive information under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act), and the small business exemption is unlikely to help, because section 6D(4)(b) of the Act brings in any organisation that provides a health service and holds health information, whatever its turnover, as the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner confirms in its guidance for small business, and a facilitator that takes medical histories and arranges care is very likely one. Australian Privacy Principle (APP) 3.3 then requires consent to collect health information. APP 8.1 requires reasonable steps to ensure the overseas clinic does not breach the APPs, with section 16C making the agent accountable if it does, and the exception in APP 8.2(b) needs the patient's express consent after being expressly told that APP 8.1 will not apply to the disclosure, which means the agent will not be accountable for what the clinic does with the information. A tick-box inside booking terms is unlikely to be that consent.

Do you need a licence, and what should the paperwork look like?

No travel agent licence has been needed in Queensland since 1 July 2014, when the Travel Agents Repeal Act 2014 (Qld) repealed the Travel Agents Act 1988 (Qld), and there is no federal licence either, so there is no licensing gate and the booking terms, the clinic agreement and the privacy documents carry the weight instead.

Where this article has to stop

This piece can tell you what an intermediary and a supplier of the whole package each look like. Which your business is will be decided by its booking terms, its website and the way a booking actually runs, and that is a question to settle with a lawyer who has read all three while the next campaign is still in draft.

What happens next

1. Pull the terms, the clinic agreement, the privacy policy and every live advertisement into one file this week.
2. Then test each marketing claim against its evidence, and allow a fortnight for it.
3. Before the next booking, make sure the patient is told who they contract with before any deposit, and have the exclusion and no-refund clauses reviewed against section 25.
4. Replace the tick-box with a standalone health information consent before the next file leaves Australia.

If your terms predate the packages you now sell, or an overseas clinic has asked you to be its Australian representative, call Jamie Nuich on (07) 3519 5616 and walk through the terms, the advertising and the booking workflow. The firm's regulatory compliance and consumer law page describes that work.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can our terms say the agent is not liable for anything the clinic does?

They can say the clinic, not the agent, supplies the treatment, provided that is true and the patient is told before booking. A term excluding the agent's own guarantees is void under section 64.

We only pass enquiries to the clinic for a commission. Does this apply to us?

The ACL applies to the referral service you supply and to everything you say about the clinic. On privacy, passing a patient's details to a clinic for a commission can take a business outside the small business exemption whatever its turnover, although a disclosure the patient has consented to is treated differently under section 6D(7), and a referrer that takes any medical history is likely to be a health service provider in any event, so the sensible working assumption is that the Privacy Act applies, and the consent should be taken properly.

Can we use patient testimonials?

Testimonials about the overseas treatment are the agent's own representations under sections 18 and 29, so they must be genuine and must not mislead about what is typical. Where an Australian registered practitioner is involved, section 133 prohibits them outright.

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