DELIVERY companies inflated prices for rural customers to put them off ordering items online, it has been claimed.
Nina Ballantyne, Programme and Postal Policy Team Manager for Citizens Advice Scotland, told a gathering of MPs that in the early days of the internet retailers and couriers did not want to ferry goods to "awkward" to reach places and raised prices as a result.
However, companies have phased out the practice - although charges for some parts of Scotland still remain higher than the rest of the UK.
Ms Ballantyne was giving evidence to a Westminster committee on delivery charges in Scotland which heard online shoppers in the Highlands and Islands pay on average 30 per cent more to have items delivered than elsewhere in the UK, rising to 50 per cent for some.
She said: "We did find evidence a few years ago now, and I'm pleased to say this isn't the case anymore, but initially when e-retail became popular that some prices were artificially inflated by retailers and couriers to put people off ordering from awkward to deliver places.
"We don't think that happens anymore, but it did happen in the past."
The committee heard that the area affected was roughly "where the motorways stop" in Scotoand and included large population centres such as Aberdeen and Inverness.
A representative from Amazon said customers should get in touch if they feel they have been misled over delivery charges.
Lesley Smith, Amazon's UK and Ireland director of public policy, said sellers on the firm's marketplace should not advertise free UK-wide delivery then subsequently charge a fee.
Committee convener Pete Wishart questioned Ms Smith on Amazon marketplace customers initially being offered free UK-wide delivery only to have charges added before purchase.
Ms Smith said: "Customers will always see that before they get to the buying decision.
"I accept it is totally misleading to have two things on the same page and where it is at all possible to do so we intervene and we stop them doing that.
She added: "If they have advertised free delivery they have got to offer free delivery."
Mr Wishart asked if customers in this situation could be in line for refunds and Ms Smith said in the initial 24 hours they would be urged to contact the seller directly for a refund, after which Amazon would take on the complaint.
She said: "They will be refunded if they have been misled."
Conservative MP John Lamont asked if the witnesses agreed it is "just not fair" for people living in certain parts of Scotland to be paying more excessive charges.
She said: "I think excessive charges are of course unfair. I think there is a difference between what is excessive and what is a small business to trying to cover the cost."
Ms Smith added Amazon does not charge on a regional basis and offers to deliver on the behalf of smaller sellers to avoid excessive charges.
Lib Dem MP Christine Jardin, said: "I have some experience of what we are talking about - when I lived in rural Aberdeenshire it was often cheaper to drive to Glasgow and buy the thing in a store than it was to buy it online and pay the delivery charge. It was ridiculous."
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