They sold $1.3 million of monitors with this tactic, according to the article. So the fine is not that unreasonable, relative to what we usually see.
However, I think it should be about 20 times larger. Only 5x the revenue is not enough of a deterrent, because it's not likely they get caught anywhere near one in five times. If a person steals $500, fining them $2500 and letting them go would be absurd.
These fines should be a "holy shit we fucked up really bad" situation with CEO and the whole board getting a 4 am call. Not a "whatever, back to business" situation.
Although sleazy, what about this is illegal? This happens all the time in retail. If you watch the price history on Amazon or other retailers leading up to Prime Day or Black Friday, you’ll often see the list price adjusted upwards in the days leading up to the event, only for them to be published as “discounted” during it. For example, most of the year a coffee maker will be listed as $30. A few days before Prime Day, they’ll update the listing to be $60. Then on Prime Day they’ll list it for a “flash deal” costing $30 (“50% off!”). After Prime Day, they’ll change the price back to $30 base. Is what Dell did fundamentally different, or were they just unlucky enough to get sued for it?
As far as I know in my country this is illegal. You have to hold the price at least a month or so. And if I guess correctly Dell never sold it for the expensive price.