Federal Court fines major carpark company Secure Parking $10.95m after ACCC complaints

A major carpark operator with centres in Adelaide has copped an eye-watering fine for its service that promised customers a parking spot – but failed to deliver on it.

A major carpark operator with a foothold in Adelaide has been ordered to pay $10.95m in penalties for misleading customers over a pre-booking system for nearly five years.

Secure Parking Pty Ltd, which two carparks in the Adelaide CBD, was ordered by the Federal Court to stump up the whopping figure for making false or misleading claims about its pre-book ‘Secure-a-Spot’ online source.

More than 10 million bookings were made over the five-year period using the service, which was offered at 104 carparks in each of the six cities it operates in across Australia.

It follows an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission probe into customer complaints about the dodgy system, and Secure Parking admitting that between July 2017 and June 2022, it made false or misleading claims.

The company, which operates around Australia, marketed it would have a parking space reserved for customers – who used the ‘Secure-a-Spot’ service – for a specific time and date.

The ACCC found Secure Parking “did not generally reserve parking spaces for Secure-a-Spot customers”.

More than 10 million bookings were made over the five-year period using the service, which was offered at 104 carparks in each of the six cities it operates in across Australia.

Instead, the company admitted that carparks sometimes either reached capacity and, in some cases, drivers arrived at the booked spot to find it was already taken.

“Secure Parking did not provide customers with the service it advertised, and it denied customers the opportunity to make an informed decision about which parking service best suited their needs,” ACCC Commissioner Liza Carver said.

“Customers may have been seriously inconvenienced when they arrived at their chosen car park to discover the parking space they thought they had booked was not available to them.”

“This penalty sends a strong message to all businesses that making misleading claims to consumers about the nature of the services provided can attract substantial penalties,” Ms Carver said.

The ACCC launched Federal Court proceedings against Secure Parking, which is owned by Japan-based carpark operator, Park24 Co Lit.

Secure Parking operates more than 600 facilities in Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne and Hobart.

Secure-a-Spot was rebranded, to Secure Parking – Book Online, in June 2022.

The Federal Court also ordered Secure Parking to pay part of the ACCC’s costs, publish corrective notices, and review its complaints handling systems.