Fairfax Slapped With Fine Over False Domain Ad

Fairfax Slapped With Fine Over False Domain Ad

Fairfax Media has been handed a $15,000 fine by the Federal Court after the newspaper published a misleading advertisement for real estate company Domain.

The ad, which appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald on February 13, 2016, claimed Domain was the “#1 property app in Australia” and had “the most property listings in Sydney”.

Fairfax is being forced to cough up the $15,000 in the next 28 days.

The fine will be paid to Domain rival REA Group, which owns realestate.com.au, as Fairfax had told the court it would not publish misleading ads on February 12, 2016, the day before the ad in question appeared in The Herald.

The Domain ad in question

Speaking on the punishment, Justice Bernard Murphy said, “In publishing the print advertisement I consider Fairfax failed to act with reasonable diligence to ensure compliance with the undertaking it gave and I find that charge of contempt established.”

According to The Australian, Fairfax execs had pointed fingers at each other for running the ad during a hearing last year.

During the hearing, Domain chief editorial and marketing officer Melina Cruikshank said she had asked the ad in question be removed from the office’s share drive.

Cruikshank claimed to have phoned former editor-in-chief Darren Goodsir to confirm the ad had been removed, who had told her the paper was being assembled.

The ad then ran in the following day’s paper.

Fairfax Media currently owns 60 per cent of Domain.




Please login with linkedin to comment

Domain Fairfax REA realestate.com

Latest News

Sydney Comedy Festival: Taking The City & Social Media By Storm
  • Media

Sydney Comedy Festival: Taking The City & Social Media By Storm

Sydney Comedy Festival 2024 is live and ready to rumble, showing the best of international and homegrown talent at a host of venues around town. As usual, it’s hot on the heels of its big sister, the giant that is the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, picking up some acts as they continue on their own […]

Global Marketers Descend For AANA’s RESET For Growth
  • Advertising

Global Marketers Descend For AANA’s RESET For Growth

The Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) has announced the final epic lineup of local and global marketing powerhouses for RESET for Growth 2024. Lead image: Josh Faulks, chief executive officer, AANA  Back in 2000, a woman with no business experience opened her first juice bar in Adelaide. The idea was brilliantly simple: make healthy […]