QUESTION
do online merchants have to stick to their price?
Asked on May 09th, 2013 on Business Law - Alaska
More details to this question:
you are online shopping and buy a bunch of goods, and the next day your order is refunded because the merchant says they made a mistake with the prices, calling it a glitch in the system. was this transaction already 'done', meaning are they legally bound to it, and the fixed glitch thus is fixed for everyone else down the line, or are you in fact required to reorder at the new price?
1 ANSWER
The general rule is that, unless the terms of the offer expressly said otherwise, once you accept the offer it is a binding contract, and they must sell to you at that price. An exception might be if the posted offer was so ridiculous that any reasonable person would have known that it was a mistake - for example if someone offered to sell a new Porsche for $45.00 when the market price was $45,000.00. Thus, if you accepted the merchant's offer to purchase goods for $10, and the merchant refused to sell you the goods, you could sue the merchant for any extra amount you had to pay to get those goods. If you had to pay $15 (not necessarily from that same merchant), you could sue the merchant for $5.
Answered on May 09th, 2013 at 5:50 PM