Webjet: ACCC is taking travel industry giant to federal court for allegedly misleading consumers about costs

The ACCC has brought proceedings in the Federal Court against Webjet, a popular online travel booking service, alleging that it misled customers about airline ticket prices and flight bookings.

Webjet offers travel-related products and services to consumers, including those of multiple airlines, through its website and app. Both platforms enable consumers to compare and book flights, hotels, car rentals and travel insurance via:

The online travel booking portal is accused of misleading consumers at various times over five years, from November 2018 to November 2023.

“The ACCC alleges that Webjet breached Australian Consumer Law by making statements on its app, in marketing emails, on social media and on its website regarding the minimum price of airline tickets, omitting mandatory fees charged by Webjet,” the ACCC said.

“Statements included “flights from x $” when the price quoted did not include Webjet’s mandatory “Webjet Service Fee” and “Booking Price Guarantee”, which ranged from $34.90 to $54.90 per booking, depending on whether they were domestic flights, flights to New Zealand/Pacific or other international flights.

“Webjet’s fees were not disclosed in Webjet’s social media posts.”

Webjet Group said in a statement: “Webjet Marketing has fully cooperated with the ACCC prior to the initiation of these proceedings and has already voluntarily and proactively taken a number of steps to further improve the disclosure of prices and charges.

“As far as Webjet Marketing is aware, the ACCC’s concerns do not relate to current fee and price disclosure practices.

“Webjet Marketing takes compliance with Australian consumer law extremely seriously and has always prided itself on a high level of trust with all stakeholders, especially our customers.

“During the period under review, millions of customers chose to book through Webjet Marketing and we were very rarely contacted by customers complaining about our disclosure of fees.

“Webjet Group is confident that there is no widespread customer dissatisfaction with our offering, disclosures, services and pricing.

“The ACCC is seeking a range of remedies, including monetary penalties, and it is not yet possible to determine the financial impact of any outcome of the proceedings.