Singapore’s consumer watchdog has taken action against consumer electronics and home appliance retailers Courts and Prism+ for using website design features that mislead consumers.
Courts was found to have automatically added unsolicited items into consumers’ shopping carts, the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCS) said in a statement on Dec 8.
Prism+ used fake countdown timers and misleading stock indicators to pressure consumers into purchases.
‘Sneak into basket’
CCS said that following a consumer complaint, it found that Courts had engaged in an unfair trade practice by charging consumers for products they had never selected.
During certain promotional periods, Courts’ website would automatically add items to consumers’ carts without their consent.
For example, an Acer vacuum cleaner was added to a consumer’s cart after the buyer selected an Apple iPad for purchase.
Screenshot showing the desktop view of the product landing page for an Apple iPad.
Photo: CCS
Screenshot shows what happens when the “add to cart” button is clicked. A window pops up showing that the iPad has been added to cart. Nothing is mentioned about an additional Acer vacuum cleaner being added in the window. The “cart total” also does not include the cost of the Acer vacuum cleaner.
Photo: CCS
The screenshot shows what the consumer sees when clicking into the cart. The vacuum cleaner is shown as a “Promotion item” (as indicated in the red box in the middle), and its price is included in the order total (as indicated in the red box at the bottom-right). The consumer may unknowingly pay for the vacuum cleaner if he does not notice and remove it before checkout.
Photo: CCS
The consumer watchdog said that this practice could cause consumers to unknowingly pay for unsolicited items if they do not notice or remove such items before checking out.
It added that Courts did not make any changes until CCS intervened in June 2025, despite receiving customer complaints about this practice in 2024.
