by Donald Wood
Last updated: 9:40 AM ET, Tue April 26, 2022
A federal court in Australia announced it issued a $32.91 million fine to hotel booking website Trivago for misleading travelers about room rates.
According to Reuters.com, federal court Judge Nathan Moshinsky found that Trivago falsely presented hotel rooms as being the cheapest available when it was promoting rooms of paid advertisers. The original violation of the Australian Consumer Law was found in January 2020.
The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) said the hotel booking website misled customers "by using an algorithm that pushed hotels paying the highest cost-per-click fee higher and not highlighting the cheapest rates for consumers."
"The loss or damage caused by Trivago's contraventions was substantial," Moshinsky wrote in the judgment. "This arose from consumers making a booking in relation to a non-cheapest Top Position Offer when they could have booked a room at the same hotel at a cheaper price."
The ACCC's Gina Cass-Gottlieb said the hotel booking website took advantage of each traveler's desire to save money and the substantial fine levied against the company indicates how serious the courts took the case.
"Following the initial judgement, which offered new guidance about how results of comparator websites should display recommendations in Australia, Trivago worked quickly to change its website so as to comply with the court's decision," a Trivago spokesperson told Reuters.
Last year, Trivago launched an 'Activities' section in partnership with TUI Group, the world's leading tourism group. The section will connect users to over 55,000 activities, excursions, tours and more across the globe, from the Colosseum to Harry Potter Studios to dining on a double-decker bus.
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