The Ministry of Social Rights, Consumption and Agenda 2030 has opened a sanctioning file “against large electronic commerce operators” for carrying out alleged misleading sales during the past “Black Friday”. According to the portfolio led by Pablo Bustinduy, several operators have raised the price of several products before “Black Friday” and then lowered them to their original price.
From the press release, they explain that in one of the cases they have detected that, between November 15 and 20, an operator offered a television for 526.99 euros. However, on November 21, the operator raised the price of the TV to 629.99 euros, and between November 22 and 28 (coinciding with “Black Friday”), the operator lowered the price of the television again. at 526.99 euros. “In this way, consumers are exposed to false belief of being able to purchase a product with a discount of 103 euros, something that does not correspond to reality since its price was raised in the days before,” they denounce.
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From Consumption, they remember that it is necessary to take into account that, according to Article 20 of the Retail Trade Regulation Law, whenever items are offered with a price reduction, must be clearly stated, in each of them, the previous price 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 Consumer Affairs, dependent on the ministry, 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. Article 47 of the General Law for the Defense of Consumers and Users establishes that these practices considered unfair can be classified as serious violations with fines of up to 100,000 eurosan amount that can be exceeded to reach between four and six times the illicit benefit obtained.
The investigation began in the month of October 2023 when daily monitoring of a total of 1,140 products 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.
To two of these great operators, whose names have not been revealed, disciplinary proceedings have already been opened against them, while the investigation continues open to 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.
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The General Directorate of Consumer Affairs points out 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 9 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.
