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Airbnb has apologised to customers after admitting it misled tens of thousands of Australian consumers over its accommodation prices for almost four years.
The Federal Court today ordered the short-stay accommodation website pay $15 million in penalties and Airbnb has also agreed to offer up to $15 million more in compensation to affected customers.
Between January 2018 and August 2021, prices for Australian accommodation on the Australian branch of Airbnb's website were displayed with a dollar sign, without indicating whether these prices were in foreign currency.
For around 63,000 consumers who made 70,000 Airnnb bookings, these prices were in fact in US currency.
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The accommodation booking website received over 2000 complaints from customers about being charged in US dollars during this time period, yet no action was taken until August 31, 2021, when the website was amended so that prices in US dollars were clearly denoted with the use of 'USD'.
"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," ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said.
"By paying in US 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."
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The Federal Court has ordered Airbnb Ireland UC (Airbnb) to pay $15 million in penalties.
The company has also agreed to a court-enforceable compensation program for about 63,000 affected consumers who had over 70,000 bookings billed in US dollars.
This compensation could total as much as another $15 million.
"Affected consumers ultimately paid significantly more than they expected to pay because of the prevailing USD/AUD exchange rate at the time," Ms Cass-Gottlieb said.
"Some users also paid additional charges to their banks as a result of paying in a foreign currency."
Customers will be compensated the difference between the listed price in Australian dollars and the price they actually paid, plus any additional foreign currency transaction fees.
The average compensation amount is expected to be about $230 per consumer.
When contacted by 9news.com.au for comment, Airbnb Country Manager for Australia and New Zealand Susan Wheeldon said the currency confusion "was rectified promptly once brought to our attention".
Wheeldon also said that before the update, the US currency code was not displayed on the website during the initial stages of a booking, but it was displayed on the final booking page before guests confirmed their purchase.
"While only a very small percentage of Australian guests are believed to have been impacted, we are disappointed that this happened. Airbnb would like to apologise to those guests," she said.
Eligible consumers will be contacted by Airbnb within the next 45 days to receive their compensation.
