Black Friday Loses Popularity Due to Plague of Misleading Sales
Black Friday 2024, celebrated this Friday, was marked by consumer distrust. Justified, on the other hand. According to price monitoring conducted by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs during last year’s campaign, 70% of discounts announced by e-commerce operators were false or misleading. Consumers are becoming increasingly aware of the spread of this illegal practice and are punishing businesses. Three out of four Spaniards (76%) admit they planned to take advantage of the opportunity to buy, up from 84% in 2023.and that they are going to do it with a smaller budget: 201 euros, 15% less up from €237 in 2023, according to the Organization of Consumers and Users (OCU).
The Retail Regulation Act specifies that the base price for establishing a discount must be the lowest price that would apply to identical products during the previous 30 days. However, 7 out of 10 discounted items advertised on Black Friday 2023 did not meet these guidelines. Instead of, Operators raised prices on products in the days leading up to Black Friday, only to lower them later and label them as discounted items. although many of them cost the same as at other times of the year.
Other businesses They raised prices and then offered discount coupons to customers.giving the feeling of getting a better price, as well as Alerts were circulated about limited-time sales that didn’t exist back then to encourage compulsive buying. In this sense, the OCU warns that 39% of Spaniards exhibit compulsive shopping behavior during Black Friday.
Such commercial practices are considered unfair to consumers, reminds the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, and constitute an offense that can be classified as a serious offense with a fine of up to 100,000 euros, an amount that can be exceeded and is four to six times the illegal benefit received, in accordance with the General Law on the Protection of Consumers and Users.
Ministry Consumption has already fined two major e-commerce operators for defrauding consumers with “false discounts” during Black Friday 2023. The department, headed by Pablo Bustinduy, continues open disciplinary proceedings against six other operators for the same actions and again carries out false transactions, strengthening its price monitoring systems.
As shown by the Household Panel data for the second quarter of 2024 on e-commerce in the country, prepared by the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) and published this Friday, coinciding with the Black Friday celebrations, 54.1% of Spaniards have made an online purchase in the last six months. Amazon is the “disputed leader” of online shopping in Spain, followed by AliExpress and Zalando.