Hotel comparison site Trivago is facing a big fine in Australia after acknowledging it has misled customers over its price comparison tool.
Australia’s Competition and Consumer Commission launched a probe and found ‘misleading hotel pricing and representations’ in its TV and online ads.
The ad campaigns gave the impression customers were getting the best deals from their search criteria.
However Trivago was prioritising sites that paid it the highest fees.
The company admitted in a court filing it was giving customers ‘an erroneous belief’ about getting the cheapest rates.
Trivago promoted itself as an impartial price comparison site and could now face ‘very sizeable fines’ according to the ACCC.
"We looked at the Trivago algorithm and formed the view it was misleading," said ACCC chairman Rod Sims.
Under Australian consumer law a single offence could result in a fine of A$1.1 million, with lawyers predicting the company could be hit with a penalty of several million dollars.
The offences date back five years, according to the ACCC investigation.
