Legal proceedings have been launched against Webjet Marketing Pty Ltd, alleging it misled consumers about airfare pricing and flight bookings. 

The Federal Court case raises concerns about practices impacting transparency in the digital travel industry.

Webjet, a prominent platform for comparing and booking travel services, is alleged to have contravened Australian Consumer Law by presenting airfare prices without adequately disclosing mandatory fees. 

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) claims that Webjet’s advertisements, emails, social media posts, and app prominently featured phrases such as “flights from $x”, but omitted the inclusion of compulsory servicing fees and booking price guarantee fees. 

These fees, ranging between $34.90 and $54.90 per booking, were reportedly not immediately visible and were disclosed only in fine print on certain platforms.

The regulator alleges that such representations occurred over a period spanning five years, from November 2018 to November 2023.

Webjet is also accused of confirming flight bookings to consumers despite not finalising reservations with airlines in at least 382 instances. 

Consumers allegedly received confirmation emails and viewed confirmation screens, only to later discover that their bookings were incomplete. 

Webjet either sought additional payments to finalise these bookings or offered refunds, leaving consumers potentially burdened with additional costs or losses from related travel arrangements, the regulator says.

“We are very concerned about this alleged conduct by Webjet, which represented to consumers that their flight booking had been confirmed and left some consumers in the position of having to pay more to later complete the booking,” says ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb.

The ACCC is pursuing penalties, declarations, injunctions, consumer redress, and other orders against Webjet. 

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