Strikethrough prices on e-shops are often fake promotions, according to UFC-Que Choisir, who complains

When you have an item in mind and it appears at a crossed out price with a greater or lesser percentage reduction for a very short or indefinite period, you can quickly be tempted to jump at the chance. Only, it happens that this type of promo lasts longer than we imagined, even forever, as if it werefake discount there just to induce impulse buys…

More than 9 out of 10 crossed out prices are misleading promotions according to UFC-Que Choisir

Against this type of practice, the consumer defense association UFC-Que Choisir has just filed a complaint for ” deceptive business practices “, as he reveals in a press release published on May 31, 2023:

“UFC-Que Choisir’s analysis of a sample of 6,586 crossed-out price ads published on major e-commerce sites shows that only 3.4% of them correspond to actual promotions operated by sellers. »

According to research by UFC-Que Choisir, in almost all of its sample (96.6%), the promotions are not based on real price reductions, but on a principle of comparison with a recommended selling price. Enough to present the product available on their platform as a good deal compared to the competition.

UFC-Que Choisir files complaint for “deceptive commercial practices” on banned prices

Faced with these barred, misleading prices, which are not a real promotion, but only a comparison with a recommended retail price or with the competition, UFC-Que Choisir therefore filed a complaint with the Paris prosecutor’s office against 8 well-known eshops: Asos, Cdiscount, E.Leclerc, La Redoute, Rue du Commerce, Veepee and Zalando.

The Consumers’ Association is also asking the European Commission to restrict the reference price system to that provided for by a European directive called Omnibus. This requires that the indication of a reduction is based on the lowest price charged by the seller during the month before the promotion takes effect. This will strengthen the supervision of price reduction announcements made by professionals to consumers.

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