This month the ACCC commenced proceedings against Airbnb Inc. and Airbnb Ireland UC (Airbnb) for making false and misleading representations to consumers about pricing, alleging that Airbnb made misleading representations in breach of Australian Consumer Law and engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct in breach of the ACL.
Airbnb allegedly displayed and charged accommodation prices on its Australian websites and mobile apps in USD rather than AUD without making this clear to consumers. In particular, Airbnb represented prices as in ‘$X’ without designating the currency type. However, the fact that the web address for the website domains ended in ‘.au’ and the accommodation in question was in Australia, conveyed to consumers that the prices were in AUD, especially as a reference to USD only appeared once in fine print in the footer of Airbnb’s website and not in the apps. This deprived consumers of an opportunity to make an informed decision, and caused them loss from the price difference costs incurred from being charged in USD. These proceedings demonstrate the need to be transparent when it comes to representations to consumers.