Australian court fines Dell unit $6.5m for misleading customers on discounts

Dell monitors are seen for sale in a store in Manhattan, New York City Dell monitors are seen for sale in a store in Manhattan, New York City, US, Nov 24, 2021. REUTERS

Australia's Federal Court on Monday ordered Dell Technologies Inc's local unit to pay A$10 million ($6.46 million) in penalties for making misleading representations on its website about discounts for add-on computer monitors.

In a legal action brought by the country's competition regulator, Dell Australia was found guilty by the Federal Court in June to have misled customers about the prices or discounts on add-on monitors on its website.

"This outcome sends a strong message to businesses that making false representations about prices or inflating discounts is a serious breach of consumer law and will attract substantial penalties," said Liza Carver, commissioner of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

Dell Australia, which sold more than 5,300 add-on monitors with overstated discounts between Aug 2019 and Dec 16, 2021, will be 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", a spokesperson for Dell Australia said in a statement.