Misleading customers is highlighted in the statement by the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, which described unfair practices used by Traveplanet.pl.
Traveplanet.pl hid the true price of holidays
According to UOKiK, the travel service Traveplanet.pl, which has a search engine that allows customers to choose the best holiday offer for themselves, was misleading consumers. The office explains that this happened as follows. Customers could use the search engine to specify the holiday destination they were interested in and the price range. After entering all the criteria, the website displayed holiday proposals with the price for the entire trip. The problem arises when customers start browsing a specific offer. Then it turns out that the price shown in the search engine differs from the one assigned to the offer.
“The price information that appeared in the search results misled consumers because, upon entering the details of the trip, the price turned out to be different. For example, over three weeks of one of the studied periods, out of 100 verified trips, in 47 cases the price visible in the offer details was on average PLN 329 per person higher than in the search results. The largest difference concerned a trip to Dubai and amounted to PLN 4,730. The price per person shown in the search results was PLN 4,293, while in the trip details it was PLN 9,023” – reads the UOKiK statement.
Penalty for deceiving customers
The President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, after detecting the unfair practices committed by Traveplanet.pl, imposed a penalty of PLN 647,000 on the company. And that’s not all. The company will have to inform on its website and on social media about its unlawful conduct, which could be an even greater penalty than the financial one, because customers seeing such information, while searching for a holiday provider, may choose competitors.
“Price is one of the most important pieces of information that consumers rely on when choosing goods and services. The same applies to travel events. Presenting current and complete prices on websites and search engines, without requiring consumers to verify them, is one of the fundamental duties of a business” – says UOKiK President Tomasz Chróstny.
The decision of the UOKiK President is not yet final. It can be appealed to court.
The Traveplanet.pl case is not isolated when it comes to unfair practices towards travel agency customers. UOKiK reminds that in December 2023, a portal wakacje.pl was fined for similar actions. At that time, the penalty imposed by the UOKiK President was much higher, amounting to PLN 1 million.
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