Due to an upcoming amendment to the law, webshops will soon have to be more honest about the discounts they give. It still happens too often that price decreases seem attractive than they are, for example because the normal price is first secretly increased.
The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) conducted research into this in recent months and discovered that web shops ‘regularly’ lie about offers. For example, items are offered with the same discount for months. It may seem like a temporary deal, but in fact the price never changes. It also often happens that the offered item has never been listed for the ‘from-price’ in the web store.
Consumers are very sensitive to this and web shops exploit it. However, a new rule will apply from May. The original price must then be used for 30 days before the discount is given. This prevents sellers from pushing the price up a bit first. ACM will ensure that online shops actually adhere to this.
Recognizing fake discount
Until then, discounts will probably still be cheated, something you also notice during the last few days black friday-week. How do you know whether the price charged by a webshop is really a good deal?
We recommend that you look up the product at Kieskeurig.nl, to study the price overview there. You will not only see whether that is offered cheaper elsewhere, but if you scroll down a bit you will also see the Price history. This chart shows exactly how expensive the product was in the past and also whether the current price is the very lowest price to date.
