The Federal
Court of Australia has ordered Airbnb to pay a fine of about $10 million (AUD
$15 million) and to provide customers with compensation up to the same amount
because those customers made bookings believing they were paying in Australian
dollars when in fact they paid in United States dollars.
“While only a
very small percentage of Australian guests are believed to have been impacted,
we are disappointed that this happened,” said Susan Wheeldon, Airbnb’s country manager for Australia and New Zealand. “Airbnb would like to apologize to those
guests.”
The
Australian government’s Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said Airbnb
admitted making “false or misleading representations” to Australian users
between January 2018 and August 2021, displaying prices for Australian properties
in U.S. dollars for about 63,000 customers when those customers thought they
were paying in Australian dollars.
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Both
Australia and the U.S. use the same dollar sign for their currency.
“Consumers
were misled about the price of accommodation, reasonably assuming the price
referred to Australian dollars given they were on Airbnb’s Australian website,
searching for accommodation in Australia and seeing a dollar sign,” said Gina
Cass-Gottlieb, chair of the ACCC.
“By paying in U.S. 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.
“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. We are pleased with the
undertaking by Airbnb to pay compensation, which provides a meaningful outcome
for the affected consumers.”
The commission said Airbnb received over 2,000 complaints from Australian consumers raising concerns about being charged in U.S. dollars during the relevant period and that Airbnb told the court some of those users had chosen to have prices displayed in
U.S. dollars when in some cases they had not.
In
August 2021 Airbnb updated its platform to display the USD currency code
throughout the booking process for all Australian guests booking stays in U.S.
dollars.
“Ensuring our guest community is able to book
with confidence and enjoy a positive travel experience is our top priority and
at the heart of everything we do, and we have worked constructively with the
ACCC throughout this process,” Wheeldon said
“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.”
