Competition And Consumer Law Update – March – April 2022 Edition

This is the latest in a series detailing developments in competition and consumer law in Australia, including the activities of Australia's competition and consumer regulator, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), published judgments, recently issued proceedings and any relevant changes in the law.

This article covers events which occurred between March and April 2022. The previous update is available here.

Judgments

Trivago ordered to pay $44.7 million in penalties for misleading consumers

The Federal Court has ordered Trivago to pay penalties of $44.7 million for making misleading representations about hotel room rates. As we have previously reported, the Full Court of the Federal Court upheld the previous decision that Trivago had breached the Australian Consumer Law by representing that its website allowed users to identify the cheapest hotel room rates when in fact it used an algorithm which was weighted towards booking sites which