SHANGHAI - Dell, the world's leading personal computer maker, could be hit with multiple lawsuits in China for alleged false advertising of its popular laptop computers, state press has reported.

A Shanghai court is reviewing fraud allegations from 19 Chinese customers who say Dell's laptops are installed with lower quality chips than the ones the US firm advertises, the China Daily said Friday.

Customers look at Dell computer products at a Dell kiosk in Queens Center mall in New York City, July 2006. Dell, the world's leading personal computer maker, could be hit with multiple lawsuits in China for alleged false advertising of its popular laptop computers, state press has reported. [AFP]

The claimants say that Dell installed the Inter T2300E chip, or computer processing unit (CPU), rather than the more expensive T2300 identified on the company's order forms.

The newer chip, the T2300, allows users to access multiple operating systems at the same time in a process called "virtualization", while T2300E does not.

Angry consumers are demanding the computer maker refund twice the value of the goods, pay all legal costs and issue a formal apology, the report said. An average Dell laptop costs around 1,000 dollars.

Sharon Zhang, a spokeswoman for Dell at China headquarters in Beijing, admitted that the Texas-based company had made an error but had since done its best to make ammends.

"We have acknowledged that this is an error, that this error is unfortunate and unintended. We have apologized for the inconvenience and the misunderstanding and the confusion caused to customers," Zhang told AFP.

"Most customers were satisfied with an apology but for those who were not satisfied we offered full refund, which many customers took."

Page:

1

2