Qantas Airways Limited Rotten Score Breakdown

In October 2024, the Federal Court ordered Qantas Airways Limited to pay A$100 million in penalties for misleading consumers about flights it had already decided to cancel. Qantas admitted that it continued offering and selling tickets for tens of thousands of cancelled flights and failed to promptly inform some existing ticket holders that their flights had been cancelled. The conduct affected consumers between May 2021 and August 2023. Qantas also undertook to pay approximately A$20 million to more than 86,000 affected customers. The ACCC said consumers must be able to rely on airlines to provide accurate information when purchasing air travel. Source: Australian Competition and Consumer Commission https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/federal-court-orders-qantas-to-pay-100m-in-penalties-for-misleading-consumers ACCC airline report https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/domestic-airline-competition-in-australia-may-2024-report.pdf

Qantas was ordered to pay a A$90 million penalty in August 2025 over its decision to outsource ground-handling work affecting 1,820 employees. The underlying outsourcing decision was made in 2020. Australian courts found that Qantas contravened the Fair Work Act because one substantial and operative reason for the outsourcing decision was to prevent employees from exercising workplace rights, including future protected industrial action. The High Court unanimously dismissed Qantas's appeal in September 2023. Qantas subsequently agreed to fund A$120 million in compensation for affected former employees. In 2025, Qantas publicly accepted the Federal Court penalty and apologised to the workers and their families. Sources: High Court of Australia https://www.hcourt.gov.au/cases-and-judgments/judgments/judgments-1998-current/qantas-airways-limited-v-transport-workers-union-australia Qantas statement on penalty https://investor.qantas.com/DownloadFile.axd?file=%2FReport%2FComNews%2F20250818%2F02979679.pdf