Dell slapped with $10 million fine for false monitor pricing

Dell's Australian operation has been fined $10 million by the Federal Court following false and misleading representations for add-on monitor pricing it made from at least August 2019 to December 2021.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission took Dell Australia to court in November 2022; in June this year, the Federal Court declared by consent that Dell Australia had indeed made false and misleading representations on its web site as to the pricing of monitors.

Dell Australia has admitted that it contravened consumer law after more than 5300 monitors were sold with overstated discounts.

ACCC said the a selection of monitors were sold as a bundle if customers bought them with a desktop or laptop.

The monitors were often advertised with a higher "strikethrough" price, indicating to customers that they could make significant savings.

However, Dell admitted that it overstated the discounts customers received, as the monitors were not sold for the strikethrough price for most of the time.

In many cases, customers paid more for the bundled monitors, than if they had bought them as standalone products.

Dell Australia also admitted that it misled customers about the add-on pricing for monitors with statements such as "total savings", "includes x% off", "discounted price" and "get the beset price for popular accessories when purchased with this product".

ACCC commissioner Liza Carver said the outcome sends a strong message to businesses that making false representations about prices or inflating discounts is a serious breach of consumer law that will attract substantial penalties.

Dell Australia was also ordered by the court to offer refunds to customers, and to issue corrective notices to everyone affected by the false pricing. 

Furthermore, Dell Australia was also ordered to pay a contribution to ACCC's legal costs.

Dell pleased case is closed

CRN Australia was sent the following statement from Dell:

"We are pleased that this is now behind us, and our focus can return to serving our Australian customers. As we acknowledged in November 2022 when the ACCC commenced these proceedings, 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."

"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."