Thirdwave's GALLERIA PCs showed fake 'was→now' prices for 13 years

Thirdwave sold its GALLERIA gaming PCs through its Dospara (ドスパラ) mail-order site. For 55 products spanning the whole GALLERIA range, the pages showed a strikethrough reference price next to a lower selling price — for example '84,980円(＋税) ➡ 74,980円(＋税)'.

The displayed reference price was meant to read as the normal price, making the figure consumers actually paid look like a discount. In fact the higher figure was never the price Thirdwave normally charged for these machines, so the 'discount' was an illusion.

On 30 March 2021 the Tokyo Metropolitan Government issued an administrative order under the Act Against Unjustifiable Premiums and Misleading Representations, finding an advantageous-conditions misrepresentation (Article 5(2)). The misleading displays had run for over thirteen years, from 20 December 2006 to 20 February 2020.