The ACCC has instituted Federal Court proceedings against Dell Australia over pricing claims for its monitors.
The ACCC alleges between August, 2019 and 16 December 2021, Dell Australia made “false or misleading representations” about the prices of monitors and the potential savings when a monitor was purchased with a computer.
When a shopper opted to buy a desktop, laptop, or notebook from Dell’s website, they were offered an add-on monitor for purchase during check-out. The monitor was shown with a higher price in strikethrough, suggesting this was the original price, and the shopper is getting a significant saving.
Problem is, according to the ACCC, the monitors were never sold for the ‘strikethrough’ price during the timeframe, with the struck-out add-on price often more than if the monitor was bought on a stand-alone basis.
These inflation discounts were represented with wording such as “Total Savings”, “Includes x% off”, “Discounted Price”, and “Get the best price for popular accessories when purchased with this product”.
“We allege that Dell Australia made false, misleading or deceptive statements on its website to entice consumers to add on monitors to the purchase of a computer by displaying false or misleading discounts,” ACCC Commissioner Liza Carver said.
“Cases involving allegations of misleading ‘was/now’ pricing by large retailers of consumer goods are a priority for the ACCC. Businesses should be well aware of their legal requirements and should have effective compliance programs in place to prevent this type of consumer harm.”
“These proceedings are also significant because the alleged misleading conduct related to the online marketing of computers and monitors at a time when many families were in Covid lockdown. We know that many consumers turned to online purchases to buy equipment for working and schooling from home.”
“While the total number of misled consumers is unknown, we believe many thousands of consumers were sold an add-on monitor which was advertised with a representation that an inflated discount applied.
“We have commenced these proceedings because we are concerned that Dell’s presentation of allegedly inflated discounts meant some consumers may have added monitors to their purchase which they may not have otherwise bought, or which they could have bought more cheaply from another section of Dell’s website,” Carver concluded.
The ACCC is seeking penalties, declarations, consumer redress, costs and other orders.