Jetstar has been ordered by the Federal Court to pay fines totaling $545,000 for misleading it's online customers with it's 'price dripping' tactic when purchasing online.
The federal Court deemed the Jetstar tactic of 'price dripping', which is were extra unavoidable fees are added to the total price of a fare as you progress through the checkout process, as being in breach of Australian Consumer Law. Basically, Jetstar advertised a price for a fare, but when buying online, the fare could never be that low as compulsory extras were added on. This case was specifically in relation to the credit card and payment fees.
Jetstar was found guilty back in November of 2015 and relates to misrepresentations in advertisements back in 2013 on their website and in 2014 on their mobile website.
Federal Court Judge Lindsay Foster said that in his view a penalty of $295,000 for the website conduct was appropriate and a penalty of $250,000 for the mobile site conduct was in order.
“I regard the website conduct as more serious than the mobile site conduct, essentially because the website is used by consumers far more often than the mobile site in order to make bookings with Jetstar.”
“These penalties are fixed at the lower end of the scale when regard is had to the maximum penalty that may be imposed in each case.”
Under the Australian Consumer Law, Jetstar could have faced a maximum penalty of $1.1 million for each offence.
“We want our booking process to be clear for our customers,” said a spokeswoman from Jetstar.
“That’s why we made changes to our web and mobile sites to make the options available and fees that apply even clearer. These changes, made in 2014 were previously found to be satisfactory by the Federal Court.”
Personally, I hate these credit card fees and other fees that basically make you have to pay to pay.
What are your thoughts on these credit card fees and price dripping tactics?