Dell Australia found guilty of misleading customers on monitor prices, discounts

(Reuters) - Dell Technologies Inc's Australian unit has been found guilty by the country's Federal Court to have misled customers about the prices or discounts on its add-on monitors on its website, Australia's competition regulator said on Tuesday.

When customers chose to buy a personal computer, Dell Australia gave them an option to bundle a compatible monitor at a discounted, or a 'strikethrough' price, suggesting it would be cheaper to buy the monitor in a bundle rather than separately.

"Dell Australia admitted that 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 Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said in a filing.

Consumers paid more than A$2 million ($1.32 million) for add-on monitors between August 2019 and mid-December 2021, the regulator added.

Dell Australia, which sold more than 5,300 add-on monitors with overstated discounts during the period, has refunded or agreed to offer compensation to more than 4,250 affected consumers, and has been ordered to offer full or partial refunds to affected customers.

($1 = 1.5122 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Sameer Manekar in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich)