Dell has been fined $10 million after an “error” led to consumers being charged more for monitors purchased as add-ons after they were lured with inflated discounts.

The penalty was imposed in the Federal Court on Monday after the tech firm admitted selling more than 5300 monitors using overstated claims of savings.

Consumers who purchased Dell monitors as add-ons to a desktop or laptop were misled about prices through false claims the monitors could be purchased individually for higher prices and that packages represented significant discounts.

Monday’s penalty marks a win for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which launched its lawsuit against Dell in November last year.

“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,” ACCC commissioner Liza Carver said.

“It is important that businesses are careful when advertising discount pricing to ensure they do not mislead consumers about the savings on offer.”

A Dell spokeswoman said the firm was pleased the lawsuit was now over.

“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,” the spokeswoman said.

“We have fully co-operated 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.”

In addition to the $10 million penalty, Dell was asked to pay $250,000 to partially cover the ACCC’s legal costs of running the lawsuit.

In June, the firm was ordered to offer refunds, send out corrective notices to affected customers and review its compliance program.

At the time, Dell had already compensated more than 4250 individuals.

– AAP