Digital Imaging Express, trading as digiDirect, has paid $39,240 in penalties after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) issued three infringement notices for allegedly misleading consumers about the details of advertised sales in breach of the Australian Consumer Law (ACL).
In June, July and October 2020, digiDirect ran sales promotions that used the headline statement “X% off storewide” advertised on its website, social media and sent via email to digiDirect subscribers.
While the promotions stated the discount would apply to all products available for sale, hundreds of products including digital cameras, camera lenses and accessories were excluded from the promotions.
The ACCC alleges that digiDirect contravened the ACL by falsely representing to consumers that all products were available at a discounted price when this was not the case.
“A business that advertises a ‘storewide’ sale but excludes a significant number of items is, in our view, clearly misleading consumers, which is unacceptable,” ACCC chair Rod Sims said.
“In this instance, the offer of storewide discounts will have attracted many consumers to the digiDirect sale. While those consumers may not have been misled about whether or not the discount ultimately applied to the product they wanted to purchase, it is still unacceptable for a business to entice customers to a sale on the promise of discounts that may not apply.”
digiDirect stopped advertising the ‘storewide’ discounts promptly after the ACCC intervened.