A large retail chain offered 13-inch iPad Air models to loyalty card holders for $17, with both online orders and in-store collection sales processed and the iPads handed over to their new owners.
It took the company 11 days to realize it had made a mistake, and it is now asking customers who bought the iPads to either return them or pay almost full price for them. Unfortunately for the retailer, the terms and conditions attached to the order did not exclude pricing errors …
Wired reports that the mistake was made by retail tech giant MediaWorld in Italy.
The terms and conditions had no clauses about excluding pricing errors, with MediaWorld trying to rely on a more general principle in contract law. Italian law does say that a company can void a contract if the error would have been obvious.
However, a consumer lawyer cited in the piece said that there are so many different promotional deals, some of them clearly designed to generate publicity, that consumers could not be expected to know for sure that it was a mistake rather than a promotional deal on a handful of sales. Additionally, the company has not served formal legal notice, merely emailing customers to offer them the two options.
It’s unclear how the saga will end, but for now customers are probably best advised to hold onto the iPads and not respond to the email.
Highlighted accessories
- Official Apple Store on Amazon
- Apple 40W Dynamic Power Adapter for iPhone 17
- Official Apple iPhone Air cases and bumpers
- iPhone Air MagSafe Battery
- Official iPhone Air case
- Official iPhone 17 cases
- Official iPhone 17 Pro cases and Pro Max cases
Photo by Jaime Marrero on Unsplash
