Basically, a Black Friday price cut was announced for more than half of the products watched. The EU Commission announced on Monday that 23 percent of these are clearly against EU law.
According to EU law, stores and online marketplaces must list the lowest price for the product in the last 30 days in discount announcements. According to the EU Commission, national authorities from 13 countries tracked the prices of 16,000 products from 176 websites over a one-month period this year.
EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders urged online retailers to reconsider the offering of their discounts. “Good offers should be a real advantage and not a manipulative marketing technique,” the Belgian said. It is now up to the national authorities to contact the relevant dealers, apply the applicable law and impose penalties if necessary.
According to experts, there are also cheating providers in Switzerland. For example, those who advertise with the phrase “Black Friday” but do not offer any discounts. Consumer protection also warns that while many retailers are tempted by high discounts, prices are based on the manufacturer’s recommended retail price, which is often very high. For this reason, consumer protection always recommends comparing prices for such discount campaigns.
There are also cases where retailers artificially raise prices before lowering them, thus having to offer fewer discounts. However, this is prohibited in Switzerland under the Price Disclosure Regulation. But according to Patrick Kessler of the trade association, there are always black sheep.
For example, on (today’s) Monday, it was learned that furniture retailer Conforama had to go to court for false discounts. The company is said to offer promotions with prices that are significantly higher than actual prices, but never offer products at strikethrough prices.
(SDA)