The Ministry of Consumer Affairs has sanctioned seven online commerce companies for applying false discounts during the last Black Friday campaign. Every last Friday of November, companies announce significant discounts on their products to encourage Christmas shopping, a tradition imported from the United States that gains more followers in our country each year. However, this year, the department led by Pablo Bustinduy revealed that seven companies inflated the prices of several products days before Black Friday and then lowered them to their original price during the sales period, simulating discounts that did not actually exist.
These practices violate Article 20 of the Retail Trade Regulation Law, which establishes that when showing a product discount, the lowest price the product has had in the 30 days prior to the offer must be indicated as the reference price. Therefore, false discounts constitute a direct deception to consumers, by violating the regulations regarding the percentage of discount applied. As a result, Consumption has imposed fines amounting to 348,000 euros, in addition to prohibiting the repetition of these practices in the future. Of the seven sanctioned companies, three have acknowledged their responsibility and have chosen not to appeal, paying the fines for early payment. The other four did not admit their guilt, resulting in more severe penalties.
To process these sanctioning procedures, the General Directorate of Consumption monitored hundreds of prices during the 2023 Black Friday, using the Price Reduction Tool. This application, developed by the European Commission, allows real-time monitoring to verify if the offers made during high consumption periods comply with the regulations on price indication. This is the tool that the Ministry, under Bustinduy's direction, continues to use to ensure that false discounts are not made in online commerce and to take action if detected, both during Black Friday and other promotional periods, such as summer sales.
Currently, Consumption 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 procedures.