Australia’s Federal Court has ordered Airbnb to pay 15 million Australian dollars (US$10 million) in penalties for misleading customers about what currency they were paying in.
The private lodging giant has also offered to pay roughly the same amount in compensation after admitting it made false or misleading representations that impacted roughly 70,000 customers from Australia from January 2018 to August 2021.
During the period, some accommodations listings in Australia priced their offerings in U.S. dollars, but displayed prices with a dollar sign that didn’t specify whether they were in U.S. or Australian currency.
The exchange rate, and in some cases transaction fees, meant customers paid more than they expected.
The ruling was delivered on Wednesday following a case brought by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said Airbnb deprived the affected users of the chance to make an informed decision about their booking, as they would have “reasonably assumed” the listings were in Australian dollars.
The watchdog, which received about 2,000 complaints about the issue, hopes the ruling will send a broader message to similar companies present in Australia, Cass-Gottlieb said in a statement.
“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,” she said.
The site aimed to display prices in the local currency unless users chose otherwise, but it failed to show the preferred currency for approximately 63,000 customers with 70,000 bookings.
The platform updated prices listed in U.S. currency with the code USD in August 2021
Airbnb’s country manager for Australia and New Zealand, Susan Wheeldon, promptly fixed the issue when discovered.
. She noted that before the update the USD currency code did appear on the final booking page but not during the booking process.
In a statement, Wheeldon expressed disappointment that this happened, although she believes only a very small percentage of Australian guests were impacted.
“Airbnb would like to apologize to those guests.
“Airbnb is committed globally to price transparency. Our team continues to work diligently to find new ways to improve and innovate so that guests, Hosts and the wider community can enjoy the benefits of travel.”
Airbnb and Deloitte, which is handling the claims scheme, will contact affected customers to offer compensation. The refund amount will depend on the size of the booking, the exchange rate used and whether there were any transaction fees. The average payout is expected to be about A$230. The total compensation paid could reach about A$15 million.
The ACCC also issued a warning to those eligible for compensation that scammers appeared to be reaching out to people and falsely claiming they can help secure a refund.
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