The Court case brought against Meriton by the Australian Competition Consumer Commission (ACCC) has its first case management hearing in the Federal Court of Australia in Melbourne today.

The ACCC claims that between November 2014 and October 2015, some Meriton staff masked the email addresses of certain guests at some of its hotels, which meant that those guests did not receive a reminder email to review their stay at Meriton. When the conduct was brought to the attention of Meriton’s senior management, it was stopped.

 

 

Meriton’s Managing Director, Mr Harry Triguboff AO has vowed to fight the proceedings. Mr Triguboff said: “I think that the money the ACCC has spent on private lawyers to bring this case to Court could have been better spent elsewhere. The ACCC knows that we fixed the problem over a year ago. They are welcome to come and see how we do things now and into the future.

 

 

"We stopped using the Review Express service for 5 months, and a lot of our No. 1 rankings were unaffected. Our occupancy rates were completely unaffected. They still have not been able to tell me who complained. Who says they were misled?

"The ACCC should spend public money on matters that really affect people’s lives.”

 

Harry Triguboff

 

Meriton’s General Counsel, Joseph Callaghan said anybody can say what they like on TripAdvisor. They don’t need an invitation or a reminder from us to do so.

“We have said to the ACCC all along, show us the class of people that would have negatively reviewed their stay but did not, only because they didn’t get a reminder email. Keep in mind that there is a TripAdvisor notice in every room.

 

 

The Court proceedings will be heard and decided in 2017.

[Meriton]