Jetstar hit with $545,000 fine for misleading booking fees
Budget airline Jetstar has been hit with a $545,000 fine from the Federal Court for misleading booking and transaction fees on its website.
Jetstar was caught out using the same “drip pricing” issue that saw Virgin Australia fined $200,000 last year.
The full booking and transaction fees are not fully disclosed until the very end.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission launched action against the airlines in 2014 for “engaging in misleading and deceptive conduct and making false or misleading representations about the price of particular advertised airfares”.
The Federal Court delivered its decision in late 2015, finding found Jetstar had misrepresented fares on its website in 2013, and mobile site in 2014. Other allegations brought by the ACCC were dismissed.
In his ruling against Jetstar, Federal Court Judge Lindsay Foster penalised Jetstar $295,000 for the website conduct and a penalty of $250,000 for the mobile site conduct.
“I regard the website conduct as more serious than the mobile site conduct, essentially because the website is used by consumers far more often than the mobile site in order to make bookings with Jetstar,” said Justice Foster.
“These penalties are fixed at the lower end of the scale when regard is had to the maximum penalty that may be imposed in each case.”
A spokeswoman for Jetstar said they accepted the court’s decision.
“We want our booking process to be clear for our customers,” said the spokeswoman.
“That’s why we made changes to our web and mobile sites to make the options available and fees that apply even clearer. These changes, made in 2014 were previously found to be satisfactory by the Federal Court.”
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