The Cutting Edge / COMPUTING / TECHNOLOGY / INNOVATION : Suit Charges PC Firms Cheat on Monitor Sizes

When is a 15-inch computer monitor not a 15-inch computer monitor? Almost always, says Merced County District Atty. Gordon Spencer. And he’s eager to take IBM, Apple, Compaq and 10 other computer companies to court over the issue.

In a lawsuit filed Monday, Spencer accused the companies of inflating the advertised sizes of computer monitors by about 13% to 19%, on average. Some computer monitors measured by the county were as much as 33.7% smaller than advertised, the suit alleges, because vendors count the entire glass screen rather than the size of the image.

“They should only measure the viewable areas of a computer screen, but sometimes they were measuring stuff that’s behind the plastic housing,” Spencer said Tuesday. “If I buy a pound of hamburger, I expect a pound of hamburger--and I don’t expect the wrapping to go into it.”

It all started in late 1993, when a citizen of Merced County--about 50 miles north of Fresno--complained that his computer monitor was significantly smaller than the advertised size.

But if Merced (population 200,000) seems an unlikely candidate to champion this cause, but it may soon have some hefty company: the state of California, which is in the middle of a similar investigation and is expected to bring charges shortly.

“TVs are strictly regulated in terms of screen size and computer monitors aren’t,” said Steve Telliano, a spokesman for state Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren. “The question is, should TV laws be applied to computer companies? We’re trying to figure that out.”

If it wins, Merced County could recover up to $2,500 for each violation by each of the defendant companies, Spencer said. Defendants who could be reached all declined to comment.