Airbnb to Pay About $20 Million After Charging Australians in U.S. Dollars
An Australian court on Wednesday ordered Airbnb to pay a fine of 15 million Australian dollars for misleading customers by not clearly showing that prices for its property rentals were listed in U.S. dollars, instead of Australian dollars, which are worth less.Airbnb admitted in the Federal Court of Australia that it had made “false or misleading representations” to about 63,000 customers who had used the accommodations-booking platform between January 2018 and August 2021.In addition to the fine of 15 million Australian dollars (or about $10 million), Airbnb will provide up to another 15 million Australian dollars in compensation to the affected customers, who had made more than 70,000 bookings paid in U.S. dollars.Gina Cass-Gottlieb, the chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer ...
