Airbnb will pay a $15 million fine after failing to make clear to customers that price listings were in US and not Australian dollars.
The accomodation company will also pay an additional $15 million to 63,000 affected customers in a compensation scheme.
Airbnb admitted to “making false or misleading representations” to customers between January 2018 and August 2021, by listing prices for Australian accomodation in US dollars. As many as 77,000 bookings were made, costing Aussies an additional $9.4 million.
In his ruling, Federal Court Justice Brendan McElwaine said customers who were misled “suffered damage” in a number of ways.
“They were deprived of the opportunity of making an informed choice of accommodation … the relevant users paid more than they expected to pay for the accommodation selected,” he said.
“For the consumers who made complaints, they suffered general harm and inconvenience to the extent to which they spent time and energy in pursuing the matter, and in some cases, they were informed that they were not entitled to a cash payment as compensation.”
Justice McElwaine also said he believed the inaccurate pricing gave Airbnb an unfair advantage over competitors that allowed the platform to make profits it otherwise wouldn’t have. He said many customers may have booked elsewhere had the system shown an accurate price in Australian dollars.
The case was brought to court by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) after it received more than 2,000 complaints. After the verdict, ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said customers were misled, adding that it was a reasonable assumption to assume an Australian website would show prices in Australian dollars.
“By paying in US dollars, these consumers were charged more than they expected to pay, and were deprived of a chance to make an informed decision about whether to make the booking because of this misleading conduct regarding the price,” she said.
“We took this case to send a strong signal to large digital platforms like Airbnb that they must comply with the Australian Consumer Law and not mislead consumers.”
Customers eligible for compensation will be contacted by February 5, 2024. The average payment is expected to be about $230 per customer, however exact amounts will vary depending on the cost of booking and if extra charges were incurred by banks for payments in a foreign currency.
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