An Australian court on Wednesday ordered Airbnb to pay a 15 million Australian dollar (US$10 million) fine, and the accommodation rental company could pay as much again in compensating customers who had been unaware they were being charged in U.S. rather than Australian dollars.
Airbnb admitted making false or misleading representations to Australian users between January 2018 and August 2021 that prices shown on its platform for Australian accommodations were in Australian dollars, which are worth less than the greenback. For about 63,000 customers, the prices were in U.S. dollars.
Federal Court Justice Brendan McElwaine ordered Airbnb to pay a AU$15 million fine within 30 days for breaching Australian consumer law, plus AU$400,000 in prosecution costs.
Airbnb had earlier provided the court with an undertaking that it would pay as much as AU$15 million in compensation to eligible customers.
Airbnb amended its platform on Aug. 31, 2021, so that prices in U.S. dollars were clearly denoted through the use of the abbreviation "USD."
Airbnb's Australia and New Zealand regional manager Susan Wheeldon said ensuring consumers could book with confidence was the company's priority.
"While only a very small percentage of Australian guests are believed to have been impacted, we are disappointed that this happened," Wheeldon said in a statement.
"Airbnb would like to apologize to those guests," she added.
Wheeldon said the company was committed to price transparency and Airbnb would continue to find ways to improve systems so guests and hosts could enjoy travel.
Airbnb had been prosecuted by the consumer law watchdog Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
"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," the commission's chair Gina 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," Cass-Gottlieb added.
Around 2,000 Australian customers had complained to Airbnb over a period of more than three years. Airbnb had blamed customers for selecting prices in U.S. dollars, including consumers who had not made that choice.
Airbnb Inc. is based in San Francisco, where the company was founded. Its Dublin-based European subsidiary Airbnb Ireland UC was prosecuted by Australian authorities because it operates the Airbnb website and apps for users in Australia.
This week, Avery Haines follows migrants' harrowing journeys across the Darien Gap. Strict new rules to stem the flood of migrants through the notorious stretch of dense jungle appear to be working, but advocates fear it could backfire.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris poked at Donald Trump over crowd sizes, his refusal to debate again and his privileged background on Sunday as she hauled in campaign cash in California and held a raucous rally at the same Nevada venue where the Republican nominee had appeared just two weeks ago.
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A pedestrian has died after reportedly getting struck by an OPP cruiser in Bala early Sunday morning.
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Hezbollah's deputy leader Naim Qassem, in his first public address since Israel assassinated the group's chief last week, said the movement is ready to confront any Israeli ground invasion of Lebanon.
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A National Day for Truth and Reconciliation ceremony is planned in Ottawa this afternoon to honour the survivors of Canada's residential school system and the children who never returned home.
A mother in a community where the cost of living is one of the highest in the country says grocery prices are 'inhumane' and retailers are putting profits ahead of people’s basic human right to food.
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A pedestrian has died after reportedly getting struck by an OPP cruiser in Bala early Sunday morning.
Republican JD Vance and Democrat Tim Walz will meet Tuesday in the lone vice presidential debate of the 2024 election, bringing together undercards who have spent two months going after each other and the opposing nominees who top the major-party tickets.
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More than 90,000 residents in a county east of Atlanta were told to keep sheltering in place Monday and businesses were told to stay closed a day after a chemical plant fire sent a massive plume of dark smoke high into the sky that could been seen for miles.
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Matt Perrault has shipped animals in and out of Canada on behalf of owners for more than two decades, handling creatures ranging from birds to bearded dragons, rabbits and ferrets.
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A pedestrian has died after reportedly getting struck by an OPP cruiser in Bala early Sunday morning.
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The fourth annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Canada is on Monday, Sept. 30.
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A pedestrian has died after reportedly getting struck by an OPP cruiser in Bala early Sunday morning.
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The fourth annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Canada is on Monday, Sept. 30.
A Reduce Impaired Driving Everywhere (RIDE) program resulted in no impaired driving charges.
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Seas of orange shirts have come to represent a growing awareness of Canada's history of oppressing Indigenous Peoples – but that awareness must translate into more "substantive changes" from the government, according to a B.C. chief.
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A 10-year-old boy from Lethbridge is being praised as a hero after a routine summer outing at the pool nearly turned tragic for his friend.
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Overnight on Thursday as the community of Elliot Lake was resting to prepare for the upcoming Kraft Hockeyville celebrations, when vandals struck a building that has been top of mind for the northern Ontario city for more than a year.
Ontario Provincial Police remind the public that ‘a case is never closed until it is solved,’ while highlighting the force's continued investigation of the 1996 disappearance of Melanie Ethier.
Sault residents may notice some commotion on the Algoma University campus over the next two weeks as a team conducts an archaeological search.
He may not have logged the fastest time or even gone the full distance, but residents of a Newfoundland town agree the goat who unexpectedly joined the local weekend half marathon was the event's undisputed champion.
A mother in a community where the cost of living is one of the highest in the country says grocery prices are 'inhumane' and retailers are putting profits ahead of people’s basic human right to food.
A soccer game in England on Tuesday night drove a spike in online traffic across the Atlantic to a website launched by the Newfoundland and Labrador government.
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