Consumer watchdog claims false discounts were applied to add-ons.

 

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission  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.

 

The problem, according to the ACCC, is that 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.

 

“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,” she added.