Moviegoers to Benefit from Clearer Online Ticketing Pricing
Friday 12 August 2016 @ 9.03 a.m. | Trade & Commerce
Palace Cinemas Pty Ltd (Palace Cinemas) has paid a penalty of $10,800 after being issued with an infringement notice by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), as a result of ACCC concerns with Palace Cinemas’ online pricing practices.
Background
The ACCC issued an infringement notice because it had reasonable grounds to believe that Palace Cinemas had breached the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) [Sch 2 to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth)] by failing to prominently disclose the total single price, including the compulsory booking fee, for cinema tickets purchased using its online booking process.
The ACCC was critical of the chain’s online booking process as the Palace Cinemas' website did not display the final, total price, including the $1.30 booking fee, until the user reached the last page.
Comment from the Consumer Watchdog
ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said it began to "clean up the industry" in the middle of 2015, with much of the focus on stamping out "drip pricing" during the online booking process. He said other chains such as Hoyts and Village quickly responded to its concerns, but Palace Cinemas was slow to act. Mr Sims went on to say:
"Online traders risk breaching the Australian Consumer Law if they make price representations that exclude mandatory booking fees when advertising ticket prices online. This sort of conduct has the potential to affect the purchasing decisions of consumers who focus on the advertised price, without being aware of the final price which includes additional fees that have to be paid as part of the transaction, such as booking fees. It may also reduce the extent to which consumers shop around because searching and comparing prices between websites is made more difficult.”
Investigations by the ACCC
This outcome follows broader ACCC engagement with the online cinema ticketing industry, aimed at improving pricing practices to ensure that the advertised prices of cinema tickets do not exclude mandatory applicable booking fees. Mr Sims said:
“The ACCC is pleased that its focus on clearer pricing by cinemas selling movie tickets online has resulted in some improvements. Consumers now have access to more straightforward pricing information which enables them to make more informed decisions about buying movie tickets online.”
Comment from Palace Cinemas
Palace Cinemas Chief Executive, Benjamin Zeccola, described the penalty as "completely unfair" because its website - both old and new - were, in his view, always compliant with the law.
Zeccola added that the old website wasn't capable of instantly calculating and displaying the total ticket price. The software required the user to click the "proceed" button.
For the past 1.5 years business has worked on revamping the website, with their new website launched in July 2016. Zeccola stated:
“… our website is and always was compliant and all fees and charges were disclosed at the appropriate time, as soon as it was humanly and technologically possible.”
Zeccola said the business paid the penalty because there was no mechanism to dispute it.
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Sources:
Palace Cinemas pays ACCC penalty over online booking fees – www.ausleisure.com.au
Moviegoers to Benefit From Clearer Online Ticketing Pricing – ACCC Release MR 127/16
