Q: Are the prices advertised on a retailer's website binding? In other words, can he advertise goods at $85 and charge $95?
A:
Generally, a seller is required to stand by an offer once the offer is accepted. There have been instances, however, where a seller's price was just unreasonably low, due to a typographical error, for instance. Most retailers will still honor the price, but in one case a court found that the price was so low that the buyers should have known it was not real. This makes it difficult to know whether a price is absurdly low because of a "fire sale", because the goods are hot, or because the seller put the decimal in the wrong place.
If a retailer makes a habit of not honoring the advertised price, the free market assumes that he will get written up on web sites like those run by the Better Business Bureau, Yelp, RipOffReport, and the like.
If you know of only one instance where a seller has done this, and the true price was reflected rather soon after bringing it to the merchant's attention, then you will have a hard time prevailing in court.
If you are in a disagreement over $10, then it is really just a life lesson (i.e., check the BBB before buying form someone you don't know), as even filing in small claims court will cost many times that amount.
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