Consumer advocacy group Choice has unveiled its annual Shonky awards for 2026, targeting predatory concert ticket gouging, millions in expired airline credits and an appliance requiring more than a full day to wash clothes.
Marking its 21st year of calling out deceptive marketing, shoddy engineering and exploitative corporate practices, the independent watchdog’s annual dishonour roll arrives amid mounting community frustration over cost-of-living pressures and opaque retail behaviour across the nation.
Gouging in the stalls: Dynamic ticketing under fire
Heading this year's roll of shame are online ticketing operators whose controversial dynamic pricing models have drawn widespread fury from Australian live entertainment patrons. As reported by The Guardian Australia, Choice highlighted instances where concert tickets spiked to an exorbitant $1,650 following sudden algorithm-driven price surges.
The practice, increasingly deployed across high-demand sporting fixtures and arena tours, effectively penalises fans for queuing early. While promoters defend the model as a mechanism to curb secondary scalping, consumer advocates argue it simply institutionalises scalping at the primary point of sale, leaving ordinary concertgoers priced out of basic cultural events.
Grounded balances: Virgin's $75 million credit windfall
The aviation sector also earned severe rebukes, with Virgin Australia singled out for retaining an estimated $75 million in unused and expired flight credits. Choice condemned the carrier for profiting from cancelled travel arrangements, arguing that travellers faced convoluted terms, restrictive rebooking portals and arbitrary deadlines when attempting to redeem their own funds.
The retention of customer money has remained a festering sore for Australian flyers since pandemic-era disruptions began. Critics have repeatedly warned that the complex hurdles required to redeem credits serve primarily to run down the clock until funds are quietly absorbed into airline balance sheets.
A marathon wash: The 25-hour laundry cycle
In the consumer goods category, the awards took aim at a combination washer-dryer unit that subjected households to an astonishing 25-hour continuous cycle. According to Choice's laboratory testing, the appliance required more than a full calendar day to complete a single standard wash and dry run.
Beyond the sheer impracticality for families, testers noted that such protracted runtimes undermine energy efficiency claims and present major reliability concerns. The watchdog argued that marketing products capable of such protracted operational times without prominent consumer warnings borders on absurdity.
Mounting calls for consumer law reform
The 2026 awards arrive at a critical juncture for federal consumer protections, with consumer groups renewing calls for mandatory civil penalties against unfair commercial practices. Unlike jurisdictions in Europe and the United Kingdom, Australia’s current competition frameworks often struggle to prohibit exploitative pricing tactics that fall short of outright deception.
Advocates maintain that while the Shonkys rely on sharp public ridicule to drive behavioural change, corporate self-regulation has proven insufficient. Without stronger regulatory mechanisms to penalise companies that withhold customer funds or deploy manipulative pricing algorithms, Australian shoppers will continue to bear the cost of commercial avarice.
