The Spanish Ministry of Social Rights, Consumption, and the 2030 Agenda has imposed sanctions on seven online commerce companies for carrying out false discounts during Black Friday, with fines reaching up to nearly 350,000 euros for constituting serious infractions and the prohibition of repeating these practices in the future, as reported by the department led by Pablo Bustinduy in a statement.
These companies (whose identity remains undisclosed) would have raised the prices of various products days before the period of offers and discounts in order to subsequently lower them to their original price during Black Friday and offer them at a discounted percentage.
These practices, the Ministry states, constitute a violation of Article 20 of the Retail Trade Organization Act, as the regulation stipulates that when displaying a product discount, «the lowest price the product has had in the 30 days prior to the discount must be indicated as the reference price.» For this reason, false discounts represent «a direct deception» for consumers.
Three of the seven sanctioned companies have admitted to carrying out these deceptive practices and have chosen not to appeal, as well as to pay the fines promptly. The remaining companies have not admitted guilt, resulting in higher fines.
Additionally, the General Directorate of Consumer Affairs has concluded an eighth case, which implies the company’s assumption of a series of commitments aimed at modifying their behaviors to comply with current regulations.
Consumer Affairs monitored hundreds of prices during the 2023 Black Friday to carry out these sanctioning procedures. For this purpose, they used the ‘price reduction tool,’ developed by the European Commission, which they will continue to use in future discount periods to prevent false discounts in online commerce.
Furthermore, the Ministry states that it is conducting an investigation into possible false discounts in online sales during the 2024 Black Friday, which could lead to the opening of new sanctioning cases.
FUENTE