An Australian court on Wednesday ordered Airbnb to pay a fine of 15 million Australian dollars for misleading its customers by not clearly showing that the prices of its property rentals were indicated in US dollars, instead of Australian dollars, which are worth less.
Airbnb admitted to the Federal Court of Australia that it made “false or misleading statements” to approximately 63,000 customers who used the accommodation booking platform between January 2018 and August 2021.
In addition to the AU$15 million fine (or approximately US$10 million), Airbnb will pay up to an additional AU$15 million in compensation to affected customers, who made more than 70,000 reservations paid in US dollars .
Gina Cass-Gottlieb, chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, a government regulatory agency, said in a statement that customers had reasonably assumed prices were in Australian dollars because “they were on Airbnb’s Australian website, looking for accommodation in Australia and saw a dollar sign”.
“By paying in US dollars, these consumers were charged more than they expected to pay and were deprived of the opportunity to make an informed decision about whether or not to make the reservation due to of this misleading conduct regarding pricing,” the statement continued.
Airbnb will contact customers eligible for compensation by February 5, 2024, according to the commission. The agency initiated proceedings against Airbnb in June 2022.
Susan Wheeldon, Airbnb Country Manager for Australia and New Zealand, said in a statement that the company corrected the way it displayed currencies after the issue in Australia was raised.
“Although only a very small percentage of Australian guests appear to have been affected, we are disappointed that this has happened,” Ms Wheeldon said. “Airbnb would like to apologize to these guests.”
Around 2,088 guests complained to Airbnb customer service about being charged in US dollars. according to the court decision. Some were told by Airbnb customer service that they had opted in to see prices in U.S. currency, even though that was not the case, according to the ruling.
Some customers were also charged fees by their banks for paying in US dollars, according to the ruling.
Justice Brendan McElwaine of the Federal Court of Australia said in his ruling that the lack of clarity regarding the currency was “not the result of deliberate conduct, designed to intentionally mislead.”
The Airbnb platform should have defaulted to Australian currency for people using it in Australia, the ruling said, but there were “bugs and/or edge cases” that caused the system to inaccurately identify some users as being located in the United States.
The court ruling states that Airbnb changed the platform in August 2021 to use the abbreviation “USD” when US dollars are the applicable currency.
