Virgin, Jetstar to Face Joint Action

The competition watchdog has agreed to wind together its separate legal actions against Jetstar and Virgin Australia, who it alleges are unlawfully slogging customers by adding surprise “booking” fees when purchasing online.
The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission had intended to run a separate case against each airline over the “drip pricing” allegations, but the Federal Court in Sydney raised concerns that running two individual cases may be unnecessary.
The ACCC launched the actions against the airlines in June as part of a broader campaign against companies charging surprise or additional fees above prices advertised.
Jetstar charges a “booking and service fee” of AU$8.50 per passenger per flight for credit card payments — unless a Jetstar-branded credit card is used.
Virgin charges a booking and service fee of AU$7.70 per passenger if credit cards or debit cards are used.
Those charges are not included in prominently advertised “sale” prices and can add as much as 20 per cent to the price of the ticket.
Lawyers for the ACCC told the Federal Court the cases should be heard separately because each airline had “different websites” and so made the disclosures of the additional charges in different ways.
The ACCC later said it was open to running the cases concurrently after the presiding judge suggested the regulator would need to “come up with … a better reason than that” to run the cases separately.
Lawyers for the ACCC subsequently agreed that running the cases together would be preferable, however, the court is yet to make a decision on how both cases will be heard.
The ACCC noted action it was involved in earlier this year against Woolworths and Coles regarding shopper docket undertakings had been run concurrently.
Announcing the action in June, ACCC chairman Rod Sims said he hoped it would send a message to other businesses that charged fees at online check-outs, such as concert ticketing agencies, hotels and car hire sites.
“If we are successful it will send a message to other sectors: we might have more action launched before we have the outcome of these cases,” Mr Sims said.
Jetstar declined to comment as the matter was before the court.
Source: THE Australian