Aussie consumer watchdog is taking Dell to court over false discounts | So Good News
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Despite making the best laptops money can buy, Dell is preparing for a Federal Court date with the Aussie consumer watchdog ACCC, following claims the Australian tech company’s online store made “false or misleading claims about the prices of the monitors”.
In a sentence (opens in a new tab), the ACCC alleges that between August 2019 and December 2021, Dell had the intention of persuading consumers to add checks when purchasing a computer “by presenting false or misleading discounts”. According to the management’s findings, the prices of monitors as an add-on are often more expensive than if the project were purchased separately.
Dell’s online store in Australia has a standard RRP and, according to the ACCC, these discounted prices were often inflated to make consumers think the savings were greater than they actually were. Marketing slogans such as ‘total savings’ and ‘low prices’ are among what the consumer watchdog says Dell Australia misled its customers in an attempt to encourage them to add a monitor to their computer purchases.
“Prosecutions involving charges of misleading consumer prices are a priority for the ACCC,” said Liz Carver. “Businesses should be aware of their laws and should have policies in place to avoid these types of accidents.”
The ACCC added that consumer confusion during the Covid lockdown was of particular concern, as parents of school children who were forced to study at home were looking for PCs and PC-related technology due to shortages and were therefore at risk of being misled.
“While the number of consumers who were misled is unknown, we believe that thousands of consumers were sold additional machines that were advertised and showed reduced discounts,” added Carver.
Will other countries end up violating Australian consumer rights?
Dell’s Australian retail store may be the latest retailer to be targeted by Australian consumer watchdogs for misleading consumers, but it’s not the first. In August, Google found itself in hot water when the Australian High Court ordered it to pay AU$60 million in fines following the lawsuit. (opens in a new tab) “Making false representations to consumers about the collection and use of location data on Android phones between January 2017 and December 2018”.
Google’s huge payout follows Samsung Australia’s finding in June, which was ordered to pay AU$14 million after the South Korean tech giant admitted it misled consumers about the water resistance of some of its Samsung Galaxy phones.
And of course at the end of October, Google-owned smartwatch maker Fitbit took issue with Australian regulators following allegations it misled consumers about refunds and the right to change Fitbit products.
The ACCC’s willingness to act on behalf of consumer rights and draw a line in the sand in an attempt to mislead Aussies is a welcome move, especially as the cost of living continues to rise and shopping costs everyone’s money.
The ACCC’s actions also serve as useful examples for countries like the US and the UK, where the powers of consumer watchdogs are well known. (opens in a new tab) less efficient and less motivated to act with equal vigor due to various red tape barriers. For example, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the US at the end of October (opens in a new tab) announced plans imagine to the detriment of sellers posting false or misleading reviews or suppressing negative feedback from consumers. Participating in the practice of posting fake reviews and blocking bad reviews is already illegal in the US but not much has been done. Director of Consumer Protection of the FTC Samuel Levine said, “We consider whether a law that would bring tougher penalties for violators would make the market better for honest consumers and businesses.”
In our opinion, what we want to draw is that some sellers are willing to openly ignore the existing laws and regulations in an attempt to mislead consumers and seem not to be afraid of facing real consequences. We hope that the lessons learned from the crimes found in Australia will begin to flow overseas.
For retailers, the need for transparency and fairness in dealing with consumers is important to consumers in good times, but it is even more important in times of economic crisis like the current one.
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