Irish consumers will spend tens of millions of euro this weekend during the so-called Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales window and while some people will no doubt find bargains, many others will end up buying products they don’t need or can’t afford at discounted prices that turn out to be largely illusory.
According to recent research from the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, (CCPC), Irish shoppers have a healthy degree of scepticism, with just 30 per cent trusting that discounts displayed on Black Friday are real.
This is entirely warranted. Repeated studies from British consumer magazine Which? have shown that retailers in the UK – many of whom also operate in the Republic – are guilty of exaggerating the deals on offer. The vast bulk of the products sold at a discount were found to be available at the same price – or even less – in the six months before or after the supposed sales.
It is neither new nor surprising that retailers try to create the impression that they are offering real and substantial discounts on desirable stock at key points throughout the year, but they should not be allowed to mislead consumers or misrepresent the deals they have on offer.
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When they do, it is consumers who end up paying the price. According to the CCPC “time-bound special offers and discounts” influence people in a negative way, with 45 per cent of those polled saying they had made unplanned purchases during a sale, only to regret it afterwards.
There are strong legal requirements on businesses when displaying discounts which mandate that sales offers must be genuine and show the prices before and after, with attempts to wilfully mislead consumers forbidden.
Many retailer adopt a far too relaxed approach to the legal requirements. It is welcome that the CCPC is announcing today that it is taking several retailers to court for breaching sales pricing laws. However, it lacks the powers to punish the worst offenders to a degree that will make them think twice about misleading consumers in the future. It needs to be able to wield a bigger stick.