YSK: Many price drops aren't what they seem...
news.ufl.edu
Why YSK: Online platforms, particularly some very prominent offenders, may artificially spike prices before creating "discounts". Whether this is intentional or the result of third party sellers fighting amongst themselves, I cannot say. Either way, don't blindly purchase something because of a deal (camelcamelcamel is great to see price history if you just care about Amazon). Besides, if your sole motivation to purchase something is based on a discount, you might be better off cutting consumption instead.
Source: I run fetchnotifs. While checking the logs this morning, I was scared to death I deployed a bug to production—Nope, it's just that day of the year.
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IIRC in Poland all stores have to show the price from month ago to prevent this kind of abuse.
It's mandated by the EU: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52021XC1229(06) (see point 6a).
There is a small, but growing, number of retailers that have decided to apply this worldwide. Perhaps GOG is the most noteworthy. Look at anything that's discounted there and you'll see their "usual" price, as well as the lowest price they sold it for in the last 30 days before the current discount started. It's a good rule, makes me more inclined to feel I'm actually getting a good deal, wish more places would do it
Isn't GOG based in Poland?
Yep, they’re from CDPR, based in Warsaw
Yes. And that’s why they implemented it.
I think it's similar in Germany. At the very least, it's illegal to falsely claim price reduction by raising prices beforehand (I think they still do it, but over longer periods).
Actually, you don't even need to change the price to get customers to buy something "on sale". The supermarket I've worked in for a couple of years regularily advertised a certain brand of soft ice cream this way (not going to say any names here). "Only 2,99€ this week" (without comparing that price to anything in particular) and people bought that stuff en masse, even tho that was the exact same price as the week before, and the same price again after the "sale". The only thing that changed during the "sale" week was the color of the price tag.
Laws regarding these types of advertising only work if customers actually compare prices, and most just don't do that.
Yeah, I've noticed such offers as well. Idk, is it just me or does it feel quite close to Täuschung?
It is definitely shady, but allegedly legal as long as you don't claim that the former price was higher. The advertisement itself "just" states what the current price is, which is not a lie.
Still totally scummy IMHO.
Yeah it's a new EU rule. I can't find that info on amazon though, maybe they still have time to implement it?
I didn't know it's in the whole EU, thanks
This is good but they should also force to write normal price first because now the biggest font prices isn't the price which you pay without buying multiple products or have membership account.
Which sadly just results in them raising prices for a month before the sale
Still better, but i would honestly require all stores to show the full year's timeline of the price right as a widget next to the pricetag online..