Taipei - Taiwan's government on Tuesday ordered computer giant Dell to sell monitors to shoppers who had ordered them at an apparently misquoted price - or face legal action.

Last Thursday Dell advertised two sizes of liquid-crystal display monitors at around one-tenth of their normal prices.

A 19-inch monitor was listed at 500 Taiwan dollars (15 US dollars), rather than the usual 7,500 Taiwanese dollars. But Dell later said the prices had been incorrectly advertised.

News of the offers spread quickly via e-mail, blogs and sites like Twitter. In the six hours before Dell corrected the prices Friday morning, 26,000 Taiwanese had placed orders online for 140,000 LCD monitors.

Taipei's Consumer Protection Commission said Tuesday it had received 471 complaints, and ordered that Dell complete orders to customers who had only ordered one monitor.

Those who had ordered more than one should receive diminishing discounts on the second and further monitors.

Failure to do so would result in Dell facing a group legal action for violating Taiwan's fair trade laws.

So far Dell (Taiwan) has issued only one statement, apologizing for the mistake in labeling and saying it would compensate the buyers.(dpa)