Airbnb was fined over $10 million for charging Australian users in US currency

• An Australian court penalized Airbnb for a pricing issue in Australia.
• The court said the company priced listings in US dollars, not Australian dollars, from 2018 to 2021.
• Airbnb will pay $10.1 million in penalties and may pay up to $10.1 million in compensation to users.

Airbnb is being fined millions of dollars because of how it priced its listings in Australia from 2018 to 2021.

On Wednesday, a federal court in Australia ordered Airbnb to pay 15 million Australian dollars, or around $10.1 million, in penalties because it "misled consumers" about its pricing, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission announced in a press release.

Airbnb will also offer millions in user compensation for the same incident.

An Australian court found that Airbnb misled users about its pricing

The ACCC found that between January 2018 and August 2021, Airbnb "misled" Australian consumers by not making clear that pricing on its website was in US dollars, not Australian dollars.

According to the ACCC, a dollar sign was listed next to pricing, and since the website did not clarify if it meant US or Australian dollars, many users wrongly assumed they would be charged in Australian currency.

"Consumers were misled about the price of accommodation, reasonably assuming the price referred to Australian dollars given they were on Airbnb's Australian website, searching for accommodation in Australia and seeing a dollar sign," Gina Cass-Gottlieb, the chair of the ACCC, said in a statement.

Because they were charged in US dollars, some users paid more for their lodging than they expected, and others were charged by their banks for paying a fee in a different currency, the commission's press release went on to say.

Approximately 70,000 consumers were impacted, and 2,000 users complained to Airbnb about the issue between January 2018 and August 2021, according to the ACCC.

The issue was resolved on the Airbnb website in August 2021, when Airbnb added the phrase "USD" next to its pricing, the ACCC also noted in its statement.

Susan Wheeldon, Airbnb's country manager for Australia and New Zealand, said in a statement that the lack of clarity on currency on its site "was rectified promptly once brought to our attention."

"Ensuring our guest community is able to book with confidence and enjoy a positive travel experience is our top priority and at the heart of everything we do, and we have worked constructively with the ACCC throughout this process," Wheeldon went on to say. "While only a very small percentage of Australian guests are believed to have been impacted, we are disappointed that this happened. Airbnb would like to apologise to those guests."

Airbnb is also offering compensation to impacted users

In addition to paying penalties to the ACCC, Airbnb will also offer up to AU$15 million, around $10.1 million, in compensation fees, the same press release went on to state.

The fees will cover the difference between Australian and US currency at the time of users' bookings and any foreign currency exchange costs users had to pay when making their Airbnb reservations.

Each consumer will receive around AU$230, or $156, though their exact compensation total will depend on their purchase. Airbnb will reach out to the impacted consumers by February 5, 2024.

The ACCC's decision isn't the first time Airbnb has gotten tangled up in a legal matter. In 2022, New York City passed a law restricting short-term rentals, which impacted nearly 40,000 rentals in the city.