The ACCC is taking Dell Australia to court, with the watchdog alleging the computer maker misled consumers about the cost of monitors.
Instituting proceedings in the Federal Court, the ACCC is alleging Dell made false or misleading representations regarding the price of monitors that consumers could add on to purchases of Dell computers.
The ACCC alleges that Dell Australia made false or misleading representations on its website about the prices of monitors and the potential savings when a monitor was purchased with a computer.
According to a statement from the ACCC, when a consumer selected a Dell desktop, laptop, or notebook for purchase on the Dell website, the consumer was offered the option of adding a monitor during the check-out process. The ACCC claims that on occasion, the monitor was shown with a higher price in strikethrough, representing a significant saving.
“The ACCC alleges 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,” the ACCC said.
It is alleged by the ACCC this practice occurred from at least August 2019 to 16 December 2021.
“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 added.
In addition, the consumer watchdog alleges that among the statements made about the ‘discounted’ price of add-on monitors on Dell’s website were the phrases: “Total Savings”, “Includes x% off”, “Discounted Price” and “Get the best price for popular accessories when purchased with this product”.
“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 explained.
Dell told Gizmodo Australia that it believes around 2,100 customers may have been impacted by its error.
“Due to an error in Dell’s pricing processes, there was incorrect information displayed on our website about the pricing and savings associated with certain monitors,” a spokesperson said.
“This occurred during a two-and-a-half year period and we believe it affected approximately 2,100 customers.”
Dell said it has fully cooperated with the ACCC throughout its investigation, and that the company has been working with impacted customers to provide appropriate refunds (as well as interest).
The spokesperson said Dell was also taking steps to improve its pricing processes to ensure this sort of error does not happen again.
“Dell has de-activated that functionality on the website and we are actively working to update our systems to prevent the error from re-occurring,” the spokesperson said.
“Businesses should be well aware of their legal requirements and should have effective compliance programs in place to prevent this type of consumer harm,” Carver added.
The ACCC is seeking penalties, declarations, consumer redress, costs and other orders.
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