Court fines STA Travel $14m for misleading customers with flight change pass advertisements

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has won a court case against STA Travel, with the Federal Court handing down $14m in penalties due to misleading advertisements promoting a flight change pass bought by an average of 64,000 customers across four years.

The ACCC started legal proceedings against the student and youth travel agency in March last year over the way STA Travel marketed its ‘Multiflex Pass’ product. The company admitted that for five years, between March 2014 and August 2019, it made misleading representations in ads for the airfare add-on by claiming customers could change their flights without paying fees or charges.

In fact, they were often charged hundreds of dollars for changing flights, even if the airline did not impose a fee to do so.