Qantas fined $380,000 in NZ for misleading advertising.
Qantas pleaded guilty yesterday to 122 charges of breaching the NZ Fair Trading Act by not disclosing the full cost of a fare, or imposing extra charges such as a fuel surcharge which should have been included in the price.
The charges related to advertising placed mainly in major newspapers in NZ between September 2001 and September 2002.
The NZ Commerce Commission brought the prosecution after customers complained that they had to pay more than the advertised price for airfares because of extra surcharges and levies, with the commission laying 399 charges, but dropping the remaining ones after Qantas pleaded guilty.
The commission has also been awarded $15,860 in costs.
Air New Zealand was fined $600,000 for similar offences in June.
Commission chairwoman Paula Rebstock said travellers were “tired of being misled about the cost of flying and without accurate advertising, they could not shop around and airlines had no incentive to compete on fares”.
Qantas and Air New Zealand have both changed their advertising to all-inclusive pricing.
A Qantas spokesman said that at the time of the offending the advertising was “standard industry practice”. “We are committed to transparent and truthful advertising and regret any instant in the past where customers may have found our advertising misleading.”
Ms Rebstock said the judgment was a reminder to all advertisers that the advertised price must be the price that customers would pay with the prosecution adding to a recent string of successes for the commission
Report by The Mole
John Alwyn-Jones
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