I mean - it's good that they have been fined, but I'm concerned about the precedent it sets!
Another thought - how did ACCC find out about this? Someone internal reported it to them?
I had a skim through it. It quotes
"Section 18 of the Australian Consumer Law provides that a person must not, in trade or commerce, engage in conduct that is misleading or deceptive or is likely to mislead or deceive."
From skimming the judgement looks like a whistleblower reported them to ABC (television station)
"In October 2015, an Australian Broadcasting Corporation program went to air that raised issues about Meriton’s practices in relation to TripAdvisor."
This is probably what led to the ACCC investigation
In the court judgement there are internal emails submitted as evidence between executives where they discuss "masking" practice etc.
The email evidence is what got them convicted I think it reads to me anyway as pretty irrefutable evidence - they discuss in detail what they were doing and how they were knowingly violating ToS of Trip Advisor.
If you're asking a customer if they're satisfied with the service/product, and then following that up to try and resolve it - that's not misleading or deceptive, that's normal customer service.