We know that many Black Friday deals aren’t that great. Consumption will begin to fine us for deception

• This past Black Friday, several major stores offered deals that weren’t just that.

• The Ministry of Consumer Affairs monitored the prices of more than 1,100 products daily.

4K TV is 100 euros cheaper. It cost 629 euros, and during Black Friday you could buy it for 529 euros. Great offer. If it weren’t for the fact that it had already been reduced to the same price a few weeks ago. This is a typical misleading Black Friday offer and while many shoppers have been warned about the practice, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs has now decided to try to put a stop to it.

The focus is on large stores. Consumption filed a case for sanctions against large e-commerce operators (unspecified) for the practice of super offers, which later did not become such.

According to El Mundo, two of these large operators have already been prosecuted and are being thoroughly investigated to see if they will ultimately be fined. A period of maximum nine months for making a decision now begins.

This is not the official price, but the previous lowest price. One argument we might consider applicable is that the discount applies to the official price and that is why the offer is “real”. However, that’s not how it works.

According to Article 20 of the Retail Trade Regulation Law, the price shown must be clearly indicated and the reduction in the previous price must be visible with an appropriate percentage.

The thing is, it also states that this price must be “the lowest price that would have been applied to the same item in the previous 30 days.” Not the original MSRP, but the lower price. That is, if it was already on sale a few weeks before Black Friday, the offer must be marked above it.

Fines 100,000 euros. Consumption has begun to investigate this common online sales practice, which purports to be a violation of the General Consumer and User Protection Act. A serious offense carries a fine of €100,000, but this can be even higher depending on the illegal benefit received.

Daily consumption is tracked for more than 1,100 products. The decision to open several cases was made because they knew for sure that this crime had been committed last Black Friday. And they know this because they have already prepared for it. As Consumo describes, they began tracking 1,140 products in October 2023, coinciding with Black Friday. Analyze these prices daily to see how much they are worth and what offer they say they have.

With the help of Europe. For this monitoring, the “Price Reduction Tool” was used, a tool created by the European Commission precisely to check whether fair price rules are being followed.

Image | CardMapr.nl

In Hatak | This was the Xataka editorial team’s Black Friday wish list.