Section 731 — Corporations Act 2001 (Cth)

Reasonable inquiries and reasonable belief—statements

(1) A person does not commit an offence against subsection 728(3), and is not liable under section 729 for a contravention of subsection 728(1), because of a misleading or deceptive statement in a prospectus if the person proves that they:

(a) made all inquiries (if any) that were reasonable in the circumstances; and

(b) after doing so, believed on reasonable grounds that the statement was not misleading or deceptive.

Reasonable inquiries and reasonable belief—omissions

(2) A person does not commit an offence against subsection 728(3), and is not liable under section 729 for a contravention of subsection 728(1), because of an omission from a prospectus in relation to a particular matter if the person proves that they:

(a) made all inquiries (if any) that were reasonable in the circumstances; and

(b) after doing so, believed on reasonable grounds that there was no omission from the prospectus in relation to that matter.

Related sections

• s 728 — Misstatement in, or omission from, disclosure document
• s 729 — Right to recover for loss or damage resulting from contravention
• s 730 — People liable on disclosure document to inform person making the offer about deficiencies in the disclosure document
• s 732 — Lack of knowledge defence for offer information statements and profile statements
• s 733 — General defences for all disclosure documents
• s 734 — Restrictions on advertising and publicity

Research how courts apply s 731

BriefBridge searches Australian caselaw by meaning — every answer cited to the paragraph.