iPad Air At Rs 1,500? European Retailer Sells Gadget At Penny Rate Of €15, Now Wants Refund

Mediaworld, an electronics retailer based in Europe, erraneously sold their iPad Air tablet for just 15 euros or Rs 1,500 to customers after listing the wrong price for the product on their website.

To makes matters more complicated, the offer only showed up for users who held Mediaworld's loyalty cards, making it feel as though they were availing an exclusive discount. With Black Friday nearing, many customers took the offer to be legitimate and made the purchase.

Customers selected the “pay and pick up in store” option, got their confirmation emails and showed up to claim their discounted iPads. Store employees promptly handed over the tablet to the buyers.

Payments also went through smoothly with no reported hint of any errors or glitches.

Mediaworld sent out emails to all these customers eleven days later informing them that the iPad price was "clearly incorrect." The firm asked them to either return it and get a full refund, along with a 20 euro voucher, or pay the difference with a 150 euro discount.

Mediworld reported to Wired Italia that the cheap price attached to their iPad Air products was due to a technical glitch. It said that retailing this product at that given price was an "economically unsustainable" practice.

It further said that it was behaving in accordance with the legal provisions that permit a contract to be amended if it was created upon an evident mistake.

But legal experts stated that the situation was a lot less cut and dry. Under Italian law, a contract may be nullified if the error was foundational and the customer was knowingly exploiting it.

But this wasn't the case, due to the situation through which the customers spotted this "discount". It wasn't too much of stretch for them to see it as a legitimate attempt to drum up sales. The intent to exploit would be evident if the customers purchased many iPads with the intention to resell.

As of the reporting of this incident, Mediaworld is awaiting a response from its customers to see if they will agree with the conditions or engage in a legal tussle with them over the ownership of the device.