The ACCC has conducted a sweep of sales advertising by Australian businesses online and in store and is concerned that a number of claims about the size and scope of discounts may be misleading consumers.
This follows consumer reports about a range of concerns during the recent Black Friday sales period about the veracity of stated discounts.
“An ACCC sweep of Black Friday sales advertisements has uncovered a range of concerning practices, from ‘site wide’ discounts that are not in fact site wide, potentially misleading ‘was/now’ pricing, as well as dubious claims about the value of discounts on offer,” ACCC Deputy Chair Catriona Lowe said.
“We are further considering some of these examples for investigation and action, and the ACCC has already asked a number of retailers to justify their advertising claims. In the meantime, we are warning retailers ahead of post-Christmas sales that they must comply with Australian Consumer Law in all the claims they make.”
“We have also seen many instances of appropriate and accurate advertising during the Black Friday sales. These include prominent exclusions and accurate claims about the scope of sales. We will continue our internet sweep of advertising practices throughout late December sales as businesses doing the right thing should not lose sales to businesses that are potentially misleading consumers.”
Australian consumers have raised concerns with the ACCC about the practice of was/now pricing practices, particularly when consumers report that prices increase ahead of any major sale period.
The ACCC is collecting data about the prices of retail goods, before, during and after the sales period. The ACCC will be reviewing this data to determine whether businesses have artificially increased the price of goods to create the perception of a bigger sale. The ACCC has already seen examples of products that were ‘on sale’ selling for the same non-sale price.
Under the Australian Consumer Law, businesses must not engage in misleading or deceptive conduct, or make false and misleading representations about the price of goods, or the value or benefit of any discounts.
“We know that many consumers rely on sales to save money when shopping for products, especially during this time of cost of living pressure, and when people may be seeking to save up for holidays and festivities. Retailers must not seek to take advantage of this by misleading consumers,” Ms Lowe said.
Consumers should examine claims about discounts or savings made by businesses carefully, particularly during any sales period and look out for any disclaimers or qualifications.
Some of the concerning practices include:
- Claims of store or sitewide sales: The ACCC has seen a number of instances where ‘store wide’ discount claims have in fact involved exclusions.
- Fine print or disclaimers that seek to limit headline claims about the sale, including member only deals or excluding a range of products.
- ‘Was/now’ pricing: ‘was/now’ displays purport to compare the usual price of a product with its discounted price. In making these claims, these retailers must ensure they do not mislead consumers.
- Use of ‘recommended retail pricing’ (RRP). In some cases, retailers are using the phrase ‘recommended retail prices’ as a base price to calculate an advertised saving. This practice may also be misleading if the business has not sold the product at the “RRP” price recently, and for a reasonable period of time.
- ‘Up to X% off’: ‘Up to’ claims can raise concerns where the ‘up to’ text is not prominently displayed, or where few or very few products are on sale at X% off.
Above is a media release (17/12/2024) from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. The original article, along with more background and specific examples of misleading sales advertisements, is available here.