JB Hi-Fi will pay back more than $250,000 to around 206 customers after an investigation by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission into its online promotions. Regulators examined 17 products, including two laptops, a virtual reality headset and a gaming monitor that were advertised as being discounted from higher “was” prices. According to the watchdog, those items were sometimes never sold at the higher reference price, were sold at that price only briefly or were sold at the higher level long before the advertised sale. Authorities confirm that no further enforcement action will follow the refunds.
Regulators monitored JB Hi-Fi’s online pricing between March and September 2025 and flagged 11 of the 17 products as actually sold at the questioned promotional prices. Those 11 items were purchased by 206 consumers during the review period. The ACCC attributes the misleading discounts largely to system glitches and human mistakes rather than an organised strategy to deceive shoppers. Some pricing issues were reportedly addressed by JB Hi-Fi on its own initiative even before the ACCC’s probe formally began.
Consumer regulators are now closely scrutinising online discounting practices in Australia’s retail sector. They are focused on ensuring that “was/now” style promotions genuinely reflect recent selling prices, not historic or hypothetical ones. Retailers that rely on automated systems for pricing and promotions may need tighter controls and audits to avoid similar missteps. The episode is a warning shot to any business using eye-catching discount tags without robust checks on how those prices are calculated and displayed.
