S’pore’s consumer watchdog takes action against Courts and Prism+ over misleading website features

Singapore’s consumer watchdog has taken action against consumer electronics and home appliance retailers Courts and Prism+ for using website design features that mislead consumers.

Courts was found to have automatically added unsolicited items into consumers’ shopping carts, the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCS) said in a statement on Dec 8.

Prism+ used fake countdown timers and misleading stock indicators to pressure consumers into purchases.

‘Sneak into basket’

CCS said that following a consumer complaint, it found that Courts had engaged in an unfair trade practice by charging consumers for products they had never selected.

During certain promotional periods, Courts’ website would automatically add items to consumers’ carts without their consent.

For example, an Acer vacuum cleaner was added to a consumer’s cart after the buyer selected an Apple iPad for purchase.

The consumer watchdog said that this practice could cause consumers to unknowingly pay for unsolicited items if they do not notice or remove such items before checking out.

Creating false urgency

In a separate investigation, Prism+’s website was found to have design features that created false urgency among consumers to pressure them into making hasty purchases.

The features were fake countdown timers, misleading stock indicators, unsubstantiated shortage claims and inflated discounts.

The Prism+ website had messages stating “Popular items are selling fast! Purchase within the next (timer) minutes to secure stock and avoid losing out.” on checkout pages.

However, these countdown timers had no technical function and were not linked to any of Prism+’s inventory systems, said CCS, which added that the timers would simply reset after reaching zero with no effect on the checkout process.

There were also stock indicators saying that stock was running low on product pages on its website, even when inventory was available.

For one product, the indicator was displayed even though monthly sales figures represented only 7 per cent of Prism+’s total available stock, CCS said.

Prism+ said that this indicator was used for any product with inventory levels above 100 units, but the CCS noted that this threshold was not clearly disclosed to consumers.

Additionally, there were statements on Prism+’s product pages that said other brands were out of stock because of supply chain disruptions or that there was an industry-wide shortage.

When asked by CCS about these statements, Prism+ could not substantiate the shortage claims and said the statements were made in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The consumer watchdog also found that the discounts for 10 products were listed as up to 67 per cent.

However, the actual discounts provided did not amount to 67 per cent of the undiscounted price of the products, said CCS.

Prism+ attributed this to technical errors.

It has rectified these website issues and provided an undertaking to CCS that it will not engage in any unfair trade practices.

Responding to CCS’ findings, a Prism+ spokesperson said the company had reviewed and amended its website in line with the watchdog’s guidance “within days”.

No recent customers were affected, the spokesperson added.

Prism+ said that these were “a small number of legacy marketing practices”, which included “genuine unintentional errors in our internal stock metafields, legacy Covid-period shortage messaging that was not updated and website-level discount claims that were not always aligned with specific product offers”.

Since May, all prices and discounts displayed on its website have accurately reflected the offers available, and real-time stock availability is based on current inventory levels, it added.

“We regret any concern caused to customers in the past and have strengthened our internal processes to uphold the highest standards of transparency,” the company said.

In its statement, CCS said that businesses should ensure consumers agree to the purchase of any product and provide clear disclosure of the price and nature of any add-ons before checkout.

Statements made about products, including those on stock availability or price discounts, should be truthful and factually accurate. Countdown timers should reflect only genuine timelines given to consumers.

Consumers should review their shopping cart for unexpected items and verify that payment amounts match intended purchases when shopping online, said CCS.

Those who would like to report cases of unfair trade practices by errant businesses may contact CCS on 6277-5100 from 9am to 5pm on weekdays or do so via crdcomplaints.azurewebsites.net.

Source: The Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction.

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