We’re now just two months away from the C word. Which means we’re one
month from Black Friday and many of its heretofore misleading, bogus
tech ‘sales’.
Regular readers of this column will know that I have tracked fake Black
Friday sales from Irish retailers for several years.
Like the ‘€500 off!’ TVs that were never priced at the original figure.
Or ‘€150 off!’ a pair of headphones’ years-old original RRP. Or ‘€300
off!’ laptops that are obsolete.
This year holds the faint – but only faint – promise of a positive
improvement. An EU regulation has tightened up the law, so that a sale
price cannot claim a discount on anything other than the price in the 30
days immediately beforehand.
Most Irish shoppers are cynical about sales
In other words, the shops can’t reduce the price of a TV by €30 and say
that it’s a €230 saving just because its launch price was that much
higher. (TVs gradually come down in price during the year.)
Will retailers abide by this regulation? So far, the evidence is that
they’re casual about it.
The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) – which, as
all my previous columns on this show, ignored misleading sales practices
in Ireland up until the EU regulation landed – ran a survey at the start
of the year to see what the state of compliance was.
It described the results as “concerning”, saying that “some traders had
not yet changed their practices around price-reduction announcements”.
Without naming and shaming brands, it called out the practice of
“indicating a prior price which was not the lowest in previous 30 days
before price reduction”.
It also highlighted the sneaky trick of increasing prices “followed by
an immediate decrease in price – and indicating the increased price in
price reduction announcements.”
And then there were the old favourites – “indicating a prior price that
had not applied to product for an excessively long period of time” and
“indicating a prior price which did not apply to the product”.
A follow-up post in July by CCPC executive Kevin O’Brien warned that
“sales pricing is now an enforcement priority”.
He said: “Our market monitoring is ongoing and we will be particularly
active in the coming months as we build towards the busiest shopping
months of the year. If we find any offers which mislead consumers, we
will be engaging with businesses and taking enforcement action where
necessary.”
Will it, though?
The single biggest source of cynicism that most Irish shoppers have
about sales (61pc of us don’t believe Black Friday sales are genuine,
according to one survey) comes from the frustratingly weak regulatory
and enforcement regime here.
Year after year, I pointed out examples to the CCPC about misleading
sales and asked for their response. Every time, they effectively brushed
it off with little action, claiming it wasn’t a matter for them to
intervene in.
Is this clever marketing or sneaky advertising?
And no enforcement or prosecutions or compliance orders ever seemed to
surface, despite a barrage of dodgy sales claims.
To be clear, there was law there to back it up.
The Consumer Protection Act of 2007 specifically says that price
promotions and special offers can’t give out false or misleading
previous prices.
The problem, the CCPC said, was that the law’s specification that the
goods must have been on sale at the previous price for a “reasonable
time” was never defined. It could have meant two or three months previously.
So it was a loophole, the CCPC dubiously claimed. Retailers, taking this
cue, carried on with the fakery.
It’ll be a hard habit to break for many of them. They’ll need to see it
being enforced.
When I interviewed some of them, they simply said that they were in
compliance with what they observed to be the regulatory climate. And who
can say they were wrong?
One big challenge for the CCPC is how it interprets the new law. Is an
advertised ‘deal’ a ‘sale’?
For example, Harvey Norman’s current radio ad kicks off with an
announcement of its 20th anniversary sales event with “great technology
deals”. These include Google’s new Pixel 8 Pro, which is “now €1,099”.
Google’s Pixel 8 Pro was launched two weeks ago at €1,099. It has never
been available for any other price than €1,099 in any outlet at any
time. Yet in a Harvey Norman ad promoting “deals”, it is “now €1,099”.
Is this clever marketing or sneaky advertising?
This may just be the thin end of things. Over the coming weeks, all of
the big retailers will start launching their big seasons sales, many of
which will be framed around Black Friday.
I have the screenshots of all the previous prices waiting. But even if I
find discrepancies, will anyone do anything about it?
Irish Independent Technology
===========================================================
The fb-exchange mailing list
Manage account,
List Page: https://www.freelists.org/list/fb-exchange
Archive: https://www.freelists.org/archive/fb-exchange
To unsubscribe: log onto the List page and select "Unsubscribe".
Administrative contact: insight@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
===========================================================
