Updated penalty imposed in long-running ACCC test case.
The Full Federal Court has this morning delivered a judgement imposing total penalties of $12.5 million on Flight Centre in relation to the court case initiated against the company by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in 2012.
The saga has seen FLT lose the initial judgement with an $11 million penalty, then win an appeal unanimously with the fine refunded, and subsequently lose a further appeal by the ACCC to the High Court.
Flight Centre md Graham Turner said the company was currently examining today’s judgement and would consider whether there were grounds for seeking leave to appeal against the latest penalty.
He welcomed a statement by the court rejecting ACCC submissions that Flight Centre had deliberately contravened the law. “This was a complex test case as evidenced by the contrasting judgements during the past six years,” Turner said.
“Flight Centre at all relevant times believed that it was acting lawfullly and that its conduct did not contravene the Trade Practices Act, given that its interactions took place within the context of commercial negotiations as to agency arrangements with its principals,” he added.
Turner said the company respects the court’s ultimate decision and would continue to adhere to the policies and practices put in place when the ACCC’s concerns first became evident.
“As we said when the ACCC initiated this test case, for more than 30 years Flight Centre has sought to deliver cheaper airfares to the travelling public. The company is not in the business of attempting to make airfares more expensive,” he said.
The $12.5 million penalty would not affect FLT’s market guidance for FY18 for an underlying profit before tax of between $360m and $385m.
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