Investigation launched into Black Friday scams

The Ministry of Social Rights, Consumption and Agenda 2030, led by Pablo Bustinduy, has agreed to initiate sanctioning proceedings against large e-commerce operators for alleged misleading sales during Black Friday, a time of significant discounts in many stores and department stores to encourage purchases by consumers.

The ministry explains that “misleading discounts are understood to mean that these operators would have raised the price of several products before Black Friday and then reduced them to their original price. ” For illustrative purposes, and referring to November 2023 (the month in which Black Friday was celebrated), the following example of what happened is offered:

The investigation has detected that, between November 15 and 20, an operator offered a television for 526.99 euro. On November 21, the operator raised the price of the television to 629.99 euro. Between November 22 and 28 (coinciding with Black Friday), the operator lowered the price of the television again to 526.99 euro. “In this way, consumers are exposed to the false belief of being able to purchase a product with a discount of 103 euro, something that does not correspond to reality since its price was raised in the previous days,” explains the ministry.

In this sense, it is necessary to take into account that, according to article 20 of the Retail Trade Regulation Law, whenever items are offered with a reduced price, the previous price must clearly appear on each of them in order to be able to carry out a correct comparison. In this case, the law also indicates that the previous price must be the lowest price that would have been applied on identical products in the preceding thirty days.

The General Directorate of Consumption, dependent on the Ministry of Social Rights, Consumption and A2030, has collected information on this type of practices during a previous investigation that it launched because it considered that there were indications that these operators would be carrying out these practices in their online sales. Commercial practices that may be considered unfair to consumers and that would constitute an infringement based on Article 47 of the General Law for the Defence of Consumers and Users. Under this precept, these practices can be classified as serious infractions with fines of up to €100,000, an amount that can be exceeded to reach between four and six times the illicit benefit obtained.

The investigation has been carried out by the technical services of the General Directorate of Consumer Affairs, attached to the General Subdirectorate of Inspection and Sanctioning Procedures, and began in the month of October 2023 when a total of 1,140 products were monitored daily, coinciding with “Black Friday.” This monitoring was carried out using the European Commission’s “Price Reduction Tool”. And this is how alleged non-compliance has been confirmed regarding various electronic commerce operators, always related to online purchases through the Internet. Sanction proceedings have already been opened against two of these large operators, while the investigation remains open on the rest of the companies that have engaged in this practice. The operators investigated sell a wide range of products (appliances, electronics, sports or cosmetics) that can be purchased in stores and large stores.

The General Directorate of Consumer Affairs states that “the initiation of these sanctioning proceedings does not prejudge the final result of the investigation.” Likewise, it is reported that a maximum period of nine months is now open for their investigation and for their resolution by the competent bodies of the Ministry of Social Rights, Consumption and Agenda 2030.