Credit: ID 97488404 © Ken Wolter | Dreamstime.com
Dell Australia has been hit with a $10
million penalty by the Federal Court for misleading customers about monitor discount
bundles.
Following its declaration in June, the Federal Court has now ordered Dell to pay $10 million for misleading consumers about discount bundles of adding a monitor to a new laptop or desktop computer purchase.
In November last year, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) instituted Federal Court proceedings against the local arm of Dell, when the vendor was claimed to have made the misleading claims.
According to the consumer watchdog back in November last year, when a consumer selected a Dell desktop, laptop, or notebook for purchase on the Dell website from at least August 2019 to 16 December 2021, the consumer was offered the option of adding a monitor during the check-out process.
Often, the monitor was allegedly shown with a higher price in strikethrough, representing a significant saving. However, the ACCC said the monitors were not sold for the ‘strikethrough’ price for most of the relevant time and, in some cases, the add-on price shown was more expensive than if the monitor was bought on a stand-alone basis.
Dell then admitted it had overstated the discounts, with over 5,300 monitors sold during the period.
“This outcome sends a strong message to businesses that making false representations about prices or inflating discounts is a serious breach of consumer law and will attract substantial penalties,” said ACCC Commissioner Liza Carver.
“We took this action against Dell Australia because consumers rely on accurate information about prices and discounts to make purchasing decisions.
“It is important that businesses are careful when advertising discount pricing to ensure they do not mislead consumers about the savings on offer.”
In a statement following the penalty order announcement, a spokesperson for Dell said that the company is “pleased that this is now behind us”.
“We have fully cooperated with the ACCC throughout their investigation, have been working with impacted customers to provide appropriate refunds plus interest and are taking steps to improve our pricing processes to ensure this sort of error does not happen again,” the spokesperson said.
