Spain's ministry of consumer affairs to ban price changes during online shopping and booking
Pablo Bustinduy's ministry will put in force a new regulation, according to which companies must be transparent about price changes during the online shopping process and cease automatic price variation, which pressures customers to purchase
The Spanish ministry of consumer affairs is once again addressing harmful practices of online companies. Minister Pablo Bustinduy announced a new regulation that targets the algorithms used to personalise and change the prices of advertised products.
The ministry will oblige companies to be transparent about the practices they use to determine price changes. In addition, it will ban exploitation of urgency, e.g. companies will not be allowed to automatically vary prices or warn of an increase to push customers to purchase more quickly due to fear and uncertainty. In addition, the ban denounces profile and identity discrimination in determining a price.
In the event of non-compliance with these regulations, companies would be sanctioned for consumer offences with the corresponding fines in each case.
What will this regulation mean for consumers?
Although Bustinduy's announcement is only a first step and there is no estimated date yet as to when this regulation will be approved, it means that prices will not be set according to random business decisions.
The minister gave the example of renting a car online, where prices are set dynamically, varying according to when the website is viewed. In this case, the company will have to provide clear information to the user on how the price shown has been formed, whether it has been set by distance to the destination, by the time of the journey, by the frequency of the journey or by high demand. Furthermore, the company will be banned from setting the price on discriminatory grounds, such as the customer's physical status or race.
