Welcome to the community @Bella84.
The ACCC advice says “businesses are not permitted to change the terms at a later time to deny you a refund.”
While the agent is not technically denying you a refund, if they’ve changed the T&Cs to substantially reduce the amount of that refund, that would likely be considered an unfair contract term.
Additionally, an earlier ACCC guide to Australian Consumer Law for the travel industry says they can charge a cancellation fee that reflects “the reasonable costs associated with making the booking”. If they don’t reflect reasonable costs, then it may be seen as a penalty, which they generally can’t enforce.
So they would have to justify that charging you the commission they otherwise would’ve received, reflects the reasonable cost of the cancellation. Personally, I doubt it does.
For more information, see our advice on travel agent refunds (if you haven’t already).
