Singapore consumer watchdog raps Courts, Prism+ for misleading website features

[SINGAPORE] The Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCCS) said it has taken action against Courts and Prism+ for using website design features to mislead consumers.

Courts automatically added unsolicited items into consumers’ shopping carts, while Prism+ used fake countdown timers and misleading stock indicators to pressure consumers into purchases, said the watchdog on Monday (Dec 8).

CCCS chief executive Alvin Koh said: “These two interventions form part of a series of recent enforcement actions taken by CCCS against businesses that employ dark patterns to mislead and pressure consumers into unintended purchases.”

Unsolicited items in checkout carts, unverified claims

During certain promotion periods, Courts’ website automatically added items to consumers’ carts without seeking their consent. An example was given of an Acer vacuum cleaner added to a consumer’s cart after an Apple iPad was added for purchase.

Despite receiving customer complaints as early as 2024, Courts took no action until the intervention of CCCS in June this year. The retailer has now changed its website and agreed to refund affected consumers.

Meanwhile, Prism+ had four website features aimed at pressuring consumers into making hasty purchases. These were a fake countdown timer, misleading stock indicators, unsubstantiated shortage claims and inflated discounts.

CCCS said the electronics manufacturer has rectified these issues and provided an undertaking that it will not engage in any unfair trade practices.

On the Prism+ website, messages exhorting customers to purchase the item they were considering within the next few minutes to “secure stock” appeared on checkout pages. CCCS pointed out that these timers were not linked to any of Prism+’s inventory systems and simply reset after reaching zero without affecting the checkout process.

Elsewhere, an “In Stock: Running Low” message appeared on product pages on the Prism+ website even when “substantial inventory” was still available, said CCCS.

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For one product, this indicator was displayed even though monthly sales figures represented only 7 per cent of the item’s total available stock. That indicator was used for any product with inventory levels above 100 units, and a “Few Units Left: Hurry” message was displayed under that threshold.

CCCS also found that statements claiming “supply chain disruption” and “industry-wide” shortages appeared on product pages on the Prism+ website. The electronics maker could not substantiate such statements to CCCS and claimed that they were made in the context of the pandemic.

Additionally, the discounts of 10 Prism+ products against the original price were listed as “up to 67 per cent off”, said CCCS. However, the maximum discount of 67 per cent was “unachievable” as the actual discounts provided did not amount to that percentage of the undiscounted price of the products.

For one product, the discount only amounted to 38 per cent of the strike-through price, in contrast to the larger discount claim. Prism+ attributed this to technical errors, said CCCS.

“Under Singapore’s fair trading laws, it is an unfair trade practice for businesses to charge for the supply of unsolicited products, or to make false or misleading claims to pressure consumers into making purchases,” said CCCS in its statement.

The watchdog also urged consumers to review their shopping carts for unexpected items, verify payment amounts with intended purchases and question urgency claims.