Seven retailers slapped with fines for fake Black Friday sale discounts in Spain

Spain's Ministry of Consumer Affairs has fined seven online commerce companies for offering fake discounts during the Black Friday sales November 2023.

Minister Pablo Bustinduy's department has sanctioned the companies for irregular and misleading practices: raising the price of various products a few days before the event in order to lower them to their original price during the sales period and offer the products with a percentage discount.

These practices are a breach of article 20 of the Ley de Ordenación del Comercio Minorista (retail trade law), which stipulates that, when displaying the discount on a product, the lowest price it has had in the 30 days prior to the discount must be indicated as a reference price as well. Therefore, the false discounts "are a direct deception for consumers, as they do not comply with what the law says in relation to the percentage of the offer applied".

The practices have been sanctioned as serious infringements, resulting in fines of almost 350,000 euros and a ban on repeating such actions in the future.

Of the seven companies sanctioned, three have admitted to these misleading practices and have decided not to appeal, promptly paying the fines. The remaining four companies refused to admit, resulting in higher penalties.

In order to carry out these sanctioning proceedings, Consumer Affairs monitored hundreds of prices during Black Friday 2023, using the 'price reduction tool'. This was developed by the European Commission for monitoring in real time whether offers made during periods of high consumption comply with the regulations on price indication.