The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's accusations against Qantas are much more serious than anything which has previously been alleged.
The ACCC is saying, in effect, that Qantas took money from people knowing that the flight those people had paid for was not going to happen. It is accusing Qantas of "false, misleading or deceptive conduct".
This is not a matter merely of bad weather or traffic control difficulties. If the ACCC allegations hold, it is, either, of knowingly keeping customers in the dark while those customers paid money, or of one part of Qantas being so unaware of what another part of Qantas was doing as to raise questions of competence.
It's either deception or a serious organisational failure.
As the ACCC puts it in the plainest of language: "The ACCC alleges that for more than 8000 flights scheduled to depart between May and July 2022, Qantas kept selling tickets on its website for an average of more than two weeks, and in some cases for up to 47 days, after the cancellation of the flights."
The usual claim made, particularly by Stephen Byron chief executive of Canberra Airport, is that the airline hogs slots at Sydney Airport which it won't use just to keep those slots from other competing airlines. It then, so the usual allegation from the past runs, cancels flights too easily, particularly to and from Canberra Airport.
But the ACCC is going much further than that.
It is alleging that Qantas sold tickets for flights that it knew were not going to take-off - in other words, it took money from people knowing that they wouldn't get what they had paid for. So runs the allegation.
For example, the ACCC says: "Qantas flight QF1764 was scheduled to depart from Canberra to Gold Coast on 27 June 2022. On 16 June 2022, Qantas made the decision to cancel the flight. Despite this, Qantas did not remove the flight from sale until 19 June 2022, and did not inform existing ticketholders of the cancellation until 20 June 2022."
On top of that, the ACCC is not convinced by Qantas' "explanation" that passengers (not) on cancelled flights can get vouchers entitling them to future flights.
"The ACCC notes Qantas' public statements that most consumers holding COVID flight credits are eligible for, and still able to seek, refunds. The ACCC strongly encourages consumers holding these flight credits to seek refunds directly from Qantas.
"Qantas has suggested that these COVID credits will expire at the end of December 2023, and that customers with expired COVID credits where Qantas cancelled the original flight may not be able to seek a refund. The ACCC has written to Qantas strongly objecting to this proposed position and will continue to monitor the situation to ensure Qantas continues to make available refunds to consumers."
This is not a small matter of a few flights and a few customers.
As the ACCC puts it: "It is also alleged that, for more than 10,000 flights scheduled to depart in May to July 2022, Qantas did not notify existing ticketholders that their flights had been cancelled for an average of about 18 days, and in some cases for up to 48 days. The ACCC alleges that Qantas did not update its "Manage Booking" web page for ticketholders to reflect the cancellation."
The ACCC mentions penalties: "For corporations, the maximum penalties for each breach of the Australian Consumer Law before 9 November 2022 is the greater of:
- $10 million,
- three times the total benefits that have been obtained and are reasonably attributable, or
- if the total value of the benefits cannot be determined, 10 per cent of the corporation's annual turnover."
Qantas should be worried. Its lawyers may have been called in to do some overtime.
