I pressed Submit on a mistake. Can I take it back?

When a form counts as sent

Dispatch, in the Act's words: for the purposes of a law of the Commonwealth, unless otherwise agreed between the originator and the addressee of an electronic communication, the time of dispatch of the electronic communication is the time when the electronic communication leaves an information system under the control of the originator, or of the party who sent it on behalf of the originator. For a form, that is the moment it leaves the system that holds it.

When it counts as received

Receipt runs on its own clock: unless otherwise agreed between the originator and the addressee, the time of receipt of an electronic communication is the time when the communication becomes capable of being retrieved by the addressee at an electronic address designated by the addressee. The Act then makes an assumption: it is to be assumed that the communication is capable of being retrieved by the addressee when it reaches the addressee's electronic address. The designated address is the addressee's own choice, and the clock runs from there.

Correcting an input error

Section 15D is the provision for a mistake, and it gives a conditional right rather than a general undo. It applies in relation to a statement, declaration, demand, notice or request, including an offer and the acceptance of an offer, that the parties are required to make or choose to make in connection with the formation or performance of a contract.

It is engaged if a natural person makes an input error in an electronic communication exchanged with the automated message system of another party, and the automated message system does not provide the person with an opportunity to correct the error.

Where it is engaged, the person, or the party on whose behalf the person was acting, has the right to withdraw the portion of the electronic communication in which the input error was made, if two further conditions are met: they notify the other party of the error as soon as possible after having learned of it, and indicate that they made an error in the electronic communication; and they have not used or received any material benefit or value from the goods or services, if any, received from the other party.

Two limits keep the right in its place. The right of withdrawal of a portion of an electronic communication under the section is not of itself a right to rescind or otherwise terminate a contract. And the consequences, if any, of the exercise of the right of withdrawal are to be determined in accordance with any applicable rule of law.

Minute by minute: a wrong figure

1. TypedA figure goes into an online form wrong, and the system gives no chance to correct it.
2. DispatchThe form counts as sent when it leaves an information system under the control of the sender, unless the parties agreed otherwise.
3. ReceiptIt counts as received when it becomes capable of being retrieved at the electronic address the addressee designated.
4. The correctionBecause there was no opportunity to correct the error, the right to withdraw that part of the communication arises if the sender notifies the other party as soon as possible after learning of the error, and has not used or received any material benefit or value from any goods or services.

Forms answered by a system

A form answered by a system does not fail for that reason alone. A contract formed by the interaction of an automated message system and a natural person, or by the interaction of automated message systems, is not invalid, void or unenforceable on the sole ground that no natural person reviewed or intervened in each of the individual actions carried out by the automated message systems or the resulting contract.

This guide runs shorter than the others because it covers one moment: what happens at, and just after, Submit.