Gonzalez v Agoda Company Pty Ltd [2017] NSWSC 1133

Facts: Gonzalez (Pl) in Sydney booked a hotel in France on Agoda (D), a company incorporated in Singapore. When confirming the booking, Pl was taken to agree to the T&Cs of D. One of these terms contained an exclusive jurisdiction clause in favour of the courts of Singapore.

Payment Details Page - Clause 10: The Terms and the provision of our services shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Singapore without reference to Singapore conflict of laws rules, and any dispute arising out of the Terms and our services shall exclusively be submitted to the competent courts in Singapore.

Gonzalez (Pl) brought proceedings against Agoda (D) in AU, and D brought a notice of motion for a stay of proceedings in the AU courts due to the exclusive foreign jurisdiction clause.

Held: The clause was incorporated and although Pl did not read the contract, the T&Cs were clear enough that according to lex fori, the foreign jurisdiction clause was valid. The terms were linked directly above the signature on the digital document signed by Pl and were thus readily available to her. A stay on proceedings was issued because Pl did not give strong reasons for continuing in NSW and the proper law of contract is Singapore. Inconvenience and expense were foreseeable but not enormous.