Lawyers are supposed to protect the reputations of their clients, not trash them, but it looks like someone forget to tell the highly-paid legal eagles representing Expedia in Australia, who’ve inadvertently done a hatchet job on the credibility of once-iconic Australian subsidiary Wotif.com.

They did this by arguing that Wotif should not have to refund the cost of Canberra man Hugh Selby’s horror Hawaiian holiday because its “Book with confidence” statement is “puffery” (exaggerated or false praise), while saying that if you’ve got a problem with that, please read the fine print, we’ve got you covered there.

But the questionable strategy backfired and Expedia was ordered to give Mr Selby, who took Expedia to the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal (ACAT), a full refund plus costs. Why? In simple terms, false advertising – the Haleiwa holiday home he arrived at looked nothing like the images online.

Deceptive and misleading conduct

The pictures were great but the reality was a dump in Hugh’s opinion, and the Tribunal agreed, finding that “Expedia, acting as Wotif, engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct by claiming consumers could book with confidence because of the company’s ‘great local knowledge’ “, according to an ABC report.

Read the full article here.