Harry Triguboff’s Meriton misled consumers, ACCC says

Court finds Harry Triguboff’s Meriton Serviced Apartments tried to minimise negative reviews on TripAdvisor.

Meriton prevented some guests from receiving TripAdvisor’s ‘Review Express’ prompt email, the ACCC said.

Multi-billionaire Harry Triguboff’s Meriton Serviced Apartments misled and deceived consumers over the posting of reviews on the TripAdvisor website, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has found.

Meriton prevented guests it suspected would give negative reviews from receiving TripAdvisor’s ‘Review Express’ prompt email between November 2014 and October 2015, the ACCC said.

“The Court found that Meriton, at the direction of management, deliberately implemented a strategy to minimise the number of negative reviews its guests posted on TripAdvisor,” ACCC commissioner Sarah Court said.

Meriton did this by not sending guest email addresses to Trip Advisor and by inserting additional letters into guests’ email addresses provided to TripAdvisor so that the ‘Review Express’ prompt email did not reach the guest.

Meriton operates 13 serviced apartments in Sydney, two Brisbane and two on the Gold Coast in Broadbeach and Southport.

The ACCC began proceedings against Meriton in November 2016, alleging it engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct in connection with the posting of reviews on TripAdvisor, a free travel advisory, which is listed on the Nasdaq.

Meriton’s General Counsel, Joseph Callaghan, said the decision was obviously disappointing.

“Meriton has never denied that between November 2014 and October 2015 some Meriton staff masked email addresses of certain guests at its hotels, which meant that those guests did not receive a reminder email from TripAdvisor to review their stay.

“As soon as Meriton’s managing director was made aware of the conduct, it was stopped.”

Meriton did not agree that the conduct had the effect on the consumer alleged by the ACCC, “but the court has decided against us,” he said.

“We will review the Judgment and consider all options.”