Furniture giant Conforama has had to respond before the Lausanne regional criminal court since Monday. Blame: Misleading prices. Or rather: Violation of the Price Disclosure Regulations.
According to the Vaud prosecutor’s indictment, these are special offers in which the original price of a product is artificially inflated to simulate a substantial discount. This is reported by the “Aargauer Zeitung”. Accordingly, in addition to the selling price, the crossed-out prices that were not offered before were also listed. However, according to the Price Notification Regulation, such a “strike-through price” must be valid at least twice the discounted price.
Lengthy investigation by consumer advocates
Prior to the indictment, several years of research were conducted by the French-speaking Swiss consumer protection agency FRC (Fédération Romande des Consommateurs). This group has been collecting reports on questionable pricing ads and potentially misleading campaigns since 2018. As the vast majority of reported cases relate to electronics and appliances, four companies’ stores and websites were under closer scrutiny: M-Electronics, Fust, Interdiscount and Conforama.
From June 2018 to April 2019, more than 350 products were examined more closely over a longer period of time. According to the FRC, Conforama suffered the most violations. Therefore, a lawsuit was filed against this company. There are 88 fraudulent pricing cases in the indictment. In addition, complaints – but no lawsuits were filed – were filed against M-Electronics and Fust.
Conforama protests innocence
“Conforama denies the existence of any unfair competition and any intent to deceive the consumer,” the statement said. It also attacks the practices of the FRC, which finds irregularities in less than a hundred products, while Conforama sells more than 75,000 products.
The Price Disclosure Regulation says
The court must now decide whether and to what extent the existing law has been violated. The Price Disclosure Regulation stipulates the following:
- The trader must have recently actually requested the price quoted for comparison.
- This price should be valid for twice the new price.
- The comparison should relate to the same good or service.
- The discount can be made for a maximum of two months.