Dendy Cinemas fined for ‘drip-pricing' tickets, ACCC to investigate industry ticket prices
The parent company of Dendy Cinema, which operates six locations on Australia's east coast, has paid $19,800 after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) alleged it had been engaging in 'drip-pricing'.
The ACCC says Dendy allegedly failed to prominently display the total single price for tickets - including the unavoidable booking fee - at the earliest opportunity in the booking process.
'Instead, Dendy displayed prices that did not include the unavoidable per-ticket booking fee, and did not display a total price for tickets until consumers reached the final stages of the online transaction,' the watchdog said.
ACCC deputy chair Catriona Lowe said businesses needed to be upfront about the minimum cost of their products under Australian Consumer Law.
'By initially only displaying part of the total price for a movie ticket, Dendy has reduced the ability of consumers to make an informed purchasing decision,' Ms Lowe said.
'Consumers are sometimes lured into purchases they would not otherwise have made when businesses display only part of the price upfront, and reveal the total price only towards the end of the purchasing process.'
Following the action, the ACCC is looking industry-wide at cinema ticket pricing practices to ensure theatres are complying with the law.
'We encourage all businesses to review their online pricing practices to ensure they are complying with their obligations under the law, including providing the total minimum quantifiable price of products and services in their advertising and at the earliest opportunity in the booking process,' Ms Lowe said.
The ACCC has previously taken action against online travel agent Webjet for similar practices in November last year.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
News.com.au
15 minutes ago
- News.com.au
Bruce Lehrmann returns to court to fight damning rape findings
Bruce Lehrmann will return to a Sydney court on Wednesday in an effort to overturn his blockbuster defamation suit loss to Lisa Wilkinson and Network 10, and the damning findings made by a Federal Court judge. In a landmark judgment, Justice Michael Lee in April last year dismissed his multi-million dollar lawsuit against the network and its former star journalist over its reporting of Brittany Higgins' rape allegations on The Project. Justice Lee found – on the civil standard of the balance of probabilities – that Lehrmann had raped his then colleague inside Parliament House in March 2019 after a night out drinking in Canberra. Lehrmann is now seeking to have the findings overturned on appeal, with a three-day hearing before the Full Court of the Federal Court beginning on Wednesday morning. The appeal hearing will be presided over by Justices Michael Wigney, Justice Craig Colvin and Justice Wendy Abraham. 'Procedural fairness' Justice Lee found: 'it is more likely than not' that Lehrmann was 'so intent upon gratification to be indifferent to Ms Higgins' consent, and hence went ahead with sexual intercourse without caring whether she consented.' In commenting on Lehrmann's decision to sue after criminal proceedings against him were withdrawn, Justice Lee said: 'Having escaped the lions' den, Mr Lehrmann made the mistake of going back for his hat.' Lehrmann's legal team, headed by solicitor Zali Burrows, has claimed that Lehrmann was denied procedural fairness, because Justice Lee's findings were different to the case put forward by Ten and Wilkinson at trial. Lehrmann has maintained his innocence and claimed that he had no sexual contact with Higgins inside the office of their then-boss Senator Linda Reynolds. On his version of events, after entering Reynolds' office, he went to the left and she went to the right, and he did not see her again that night. In her evidence given to the court during the trial in late 2023, Ms Higgins said she told Mr Lehrmann 'no on a loop', that she couldn't scream and that she felt 'waterlogged and heavy'. Justice Lee found that he was not satisfied that Ms Higgins said 'no on a loop' and it was more likely than not 'that she was passive … during the entirety of the sexual act.' Lehrmann argues there are inconsistencies between Justice Lee's findings and the case pleaded by Ten and Wilkinson. 'Consent' Lehrmann's legal team argued that while he was on the witness stand, he should have been questioned further about whether he was reckless about consent. But that argument has been slammed by Wilkinson's legal team which described it as 'entirely misconceived'. In their written submissions to the court, they said that during the trial, Lehrmann was probed by Ten's barrister Dr Matt Collins about whether Ms Higgins had consented to sex. 'Did Ms Higgins at any time consent,' Dr Collins asked at the time. 'I didn't get consent because I didn't have sexual intercourse with her,' Lehrmann said. Ms Wilkinson's lawyers say in their submission: 'At trial Mr Lehrmann's lawyers were of the view that it was unfair to ask him about consent because he had denied sexual intercourse. 'They now apparently take the view that it was unfair to him to not have asked him specific questions about consent.' They say it is 'difficult to see' how he was 'denied natural justice or procedural fairness' because he was not questioned further. 'Given his emphatic denials of sexual intercourse or any similar intimate interaction whatsoever, there was no lack of fairness in not putting to Mr Lehrmann that he was reckless to Ms Higgins' consent when he had had sexual intercourse with her,' the submissions say. Lehrmann faced trial in the ACT Supreme Court in 2022 after pleading not guilty to one count of sexual intercourse without consent. The trial was abandoned due to juror misconduct and the Director of Public Prosecutions dropped the charge and plans for a retrial due to concerns about Ms Higgins' welfare.
ABC News
15 minutes ago
- ABC News
Tasmania's open-cut Savage River mine to shift underground in bid to be net zero by 2035
A 57-year-old mine in Tasmania's north-west could be digging between a rock and a hard place as it tries to sure up its future, but the move may come at the cost of hundreds of jobs. Mining company Grange Resources has plans to shift its Savage River iron ore operations from an open-cut mine to an underground mining method known as block cave. The process involves undercutting the ore and allowing gravity to break up the blocks, minimising the need for blasting. Currently, ore is dug from the pit at Savage River, turned into slurry and piped about 85 kilometres to a pellet processing plant to be then shipped out across the world. Grange Resources' chief operating officer, Ben Maynard, said the move underground would have several benefits, including improving the longevity and carbon footprint of the mine. "By moving underground, combined with a number of other initiatives that we have underway, we can potentially halve our carbon emissions by 2030 and be net zero by 2035," Mr Maynard said. "One of the challenges with an open pit is that as it gets larger and deeper, the waste dumps get further away, and our costs increase. We use more and more diesel. "This underground transition represents a real opportunity to reduce our operating costs, set the mine up for a sustainable future and significantly reduce our carbon emissions." He said the project would cost more than $900 million, with a final investment decision expected by the end of the year. However, the operational shift is expected to slash the 450-strong mining workforce by about two-thirds. The mine and its associated pellet plant at Port Latta on the state's north-west coast employs about 700 people, making it one of the region's single-largest employers. Mr Maynard said job numbers would increase initially before a "gradual" decline, starting from about 2030 as the company wound down its open-cut operations. Employees would be reallocated to different positions, where possible. "At the moment … we're still working through the plans of what that would look like and it is quite a way down the track," he said. Tasmanian Minerals, Manufacturing and Energy Council (TMEC) chief executive, Ray Mostogl, said the reduction came down to the "fundamental difference" between open-cut and underground mining. "The long-term sustainability of Grange is critical for both the organisation and the state, and that does involve fewer roles," Mr Mostogl said. The Australian Workers' Union (AWU) said it had sought urgent discussions with the company. AWU assistant branch secretary, Robert Flanagan, said Savage River was the only open-cut mine in Tasmania, and therefore some skills would not be transferable. "There are many things we don't know, and until we have detailed discussions with the company, things are not particularly clear at this time," he said. Mr Mostogl said with potential restarts on the horizon for Queenstown's Mount Lyell copper mine and Zeehan's Avebury nickel mine, there would likely be mining jobs in the future. "There's usually a reciprocal mine looking for people," he said.
ABC News
15 minutes ago
- ABC News
Australian companies in US–China tariffs limbo accuse Austrade of abandoning small business
It has been a busy and frustrating week in the shipping warehouse at Apéro. The Brisbane-based maternity label is packaging up its last parcels to the United States after making the call to halt orders to this lucrative market. "It's tough to make a decision," co-founder Laz Smith says. Apéro has made this decision in response to US President Donald Trump's sweeping changes to taxes on imported goods into the States. It's not the only online fashion retailer in this position. Data given to ABC News shows shipping from Australia to the US is dropping, as business "uncertainty" about Trump's tariffs continues. Apéro's woes began on "liberation day" in April, when Trump announced global tariffs, with help from a gigantic placard. Tariffs are a tax on goods as they enter a nation's borders. Officially, Australia is getting a "baseline" rate of just 10 per cent. Yet Australian companies like Apéro, which manufacture in China, are actually getting the far higher tariffs being lobbed on the Asian superpower. China's tariffs have wildly fluctuated since April, with a semi-truce between the two superpowers in May now settling them at just over 40 per cent. "It's basically a quasi-global trade war," Smith says. "And we just don't know what the playing field is, and the players can change their mind at any time." US and China are reportedly bargaining for a firm deal, but deadlines on this keep being delayed. The next is in November. "What's tricky is they are now negotiating over pretty substantial trade disagreements," Oxford Economics head of global trade, Harry Murphy Cruise, says. "I really feel for (Australian businesses caught up in this) simply because they don't have any certainty whatsoever. "They don't know what's going to happen in November. They may not know what's going to happen next week. Although, they do. Next week, another Trump curveball is coming their way. Until now, packages worth less than US$800 ($1,200) were exempt from import taxes when they arrived in the US. But on August 30, this "de minimis" tax exemption, once used by Temu and Shein, is being closed off for all countries, including Australia. Felicity Dean, who is a trade expert at The University of Queensland, believes this could result in fees of US$80 on Australian orders into the US. Others have been interpreting the new looming rules more optimistically, as just applying Australia's "baseline" 10 per cent tariff to orders. Apéro's Smith says it has been struggling to get firm guidance ahead of August 30, including from Australia Post. "I think they're still struggling to catch up to what's going on," he says. Australia Post didn't answer specific questions from ABC News. "Australia Post is investigating paying duties and taxes through an approved third-party platform provider on behalf of our merchants," it wrote on Monday. ABC News also understands Australia Post is halting "transit" shipping as it deals with this evolving situation. As retailers like Apéro grapple with uncertainty, data given to ABC News by a tech company that facilitates online orders is showing the real-world impact. "There's been a 36 per cent drop in volume since April in terms of outbound shipments from Australia to the US," Shippit's chief executive, Rob Hango-Zada, says. "All the tariff changes, and more specifically the de minimis change, has actually meant that retailers have had to pull back from the US market. Some Australian retailers in Shippit's network have been relocating their shipping logistics to American shores, Hango-Zada says. This means importing goods in bulk into the US, which means the products receive tariffs on their lower wholesale value. "We've had a couple of fashion retailers in particular that have completely pivoted their operations," Hango-Zada says. Nashie is one apparel brand that is already doing this local distribution model in the US. Its founder, Tom Wilson, says it has helped insulate them somewhat. Yet it also means Nashie has to directly pay its own tariff bills. Its garments are made in China, and Nashie is being impacted by the 40.6 per cent tariff on that nation. Its last tariff bill this month was six figures. "I was very salty sitting in the Commonwealth Bank paying that as an international transaction," Wilson says. Nashie has been raising prices for American shoppers to deal with this whirlwind, but doesn't want to have to keep doing this. Wilson wants far more support for Australia's fashion industry. Apero's Smith agrees and is calling on Australia's trade department to do more as the uncertainty drags on. "We've never heard from AusTrade, and it's quite crazy," he says. "I think there's a lot of labels and brands that do a lot trade in the US, and we haven't heard a single thing from how to navigate this. It's all on our own backs." ABC News has repeatedly asked for an interview with Australia's trade minister, Don Farrell. He declined for this story, citing timing issues.
