contract-law consumer-protection
Enforcing purchase of item &quot;mistakenly listed at too low price&quot;
<p>I purchased an item from a legitimate online store of a business registered and operating near me.</p>
<p>I paid with credit card and received an email with my &quot;order confirmation&quot;, stating the order number, price paid, shipping address, and details of the item paid for. The money was deducted from my account by the merchant.</p>
<p>After receiving the order confirmation email, I received a call from the seller saying that the product was &quot;mistakenly listed at a lower price than they wanted to sell it for&quot; so they would not honor the purchase and had already issued a refund.</p>
<p>The item was indeed listed at around 10% of the price that I can purchase it elsewhere.</p>
<p>Can I enforce the order and have them either send me the product at that price, or the amount of money to buy that same product elsewhere?</p>
<p>What is the law on situations like this?</p>
<p>Their terms &amp; conditions have no mention of this kind of situation or any general right to cancel the order etc.</p>
<p><strong>At what point can the seller cancel the deal without my consent?</strong> Before confirming the order? Before taking payment? Before shipping? Before delivery? There must be a clear boundary somewhere. I'd like to know where it is and whether it was crossed in this particular case.</p>

<h2>Probably not</h2>
<p>Once you and the store have entered into a contract the price in that contract is determinative. However, most online stores' terms are very clear there is no contract when you place your order or when you get their automated reply; the contract comes into existence later when they do something. For <a href="https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=GLSBYFE9MGKKQXXM#GUID-32F0D8DC-150F-4394-921F-77B2DB58A4F8__SECTION_5F2219ED7FA0401E868369AC40D9CE8B" rel="noreferrer">example</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>With respect to products sold by Amazon AU, your order is an offer to us for you to buy the product(s) in your order. ... <strong>The Order Confirmation is acknowledgement that we have received your order, and does not confirm our acceptance of your offer to buy the product(s) ordered.</strong> <strong>We only accept your offer, and conclude the contract of sale for a product ordered by you, when we dispatch the product(s) to you and send e-mail or post a message on the Message Centre of the website confirming that we've dispatched the product to you (the &quot;Dispatch Confirmation&quot;).</strong>  ...</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Now, even without these terms, it's unlikely that your offer and the company's automated response created a binding contract because the company (as in, an actual person acting for the company) did not consent to the formation of the contract. Consent is fundamental: see <a href="https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/6263/what-is-a-contract-and-what-is-required-for-them-to-be-valid">What is a contract and what is required for them to be valid?</a>.</p>
<p>What you received was an &quot;order confirmation&quot; - a reiteration of your offer to the company, not an acceptance of your order.</p>
<h2>Consumer protection</h2>
<p>Most jurisdictions have consumer protection laws that make it illegal to display an incorrect price. However, in most, that does not oblige the retailer to honour the price, it just exposes them to fines from the regulator.</p>
