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Does the law catch the retailer who have to products with identical specs and different model numbers? Mattress companies have long used the trick to advertise

Does the law catch the retailer who have to products with identical specs and different model numbers? Mattress companies have long used the trick to advertise permanent sale pricing that is just standard pricing in North America.

comprev 5y ago
It's long believed there's a loophole in UK law which allows these types of "continuous sales" tactics. Provided the product is available at RRP in _one_ of the shops within the same company (i.e. a chain) for a minimum time period (say, 60 days), it can be priced as a "discount" in another store. The trick used it to have a shop in the middle of nowhere (for example, north Scotland) which rotates products on the shop floor. This shop operates purely at a loss except for some desperate customers who will pay through the nose for a product due to convenience. A mattress would be for sale at GBP 999 for 60 days there, and promoted as a discount at GBP 499 in _every other store_ they own. They make profit on selling 50x products at the discount vs. a single product at original price.
mianos 5y ago
Yes. This exact issue with bedding companies has lead to several prosecutions. For example, permanently making up fake prices just to advertise a discount: - https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/snooze-admits-two-price-advertising-likely-to-mislead https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/snooze-admits-two-pric... - https://www.accc.gov.au/public-registers/undertakings-registers/s87b-undertakings-register/furniture-and-bedding-concepts-ltd-s87b-undertaking https://www.accc.gov.au/public-registers/undertakings-regist... What is it with bedding companies and criminal miss representation of prices?
- LargoLasskhyfv 5y ago
  From personal experience this is true for Germany also, since decades. It's always SALE! SALE! SALE! Everything must go! %! %! %! or something similar. The same was true for carpets for a time, but they seem to have fallen out of fashion, at least I don't see it that often anymore. But this is a general thing in every downtown or shopping centre across all sectors. And similar for groceries. I enter all of these with one big default deny and fuck off mentality switched on.

comprev 5y ago

It's long believed there's a loophole in UK law which allows these types of "continuous sales" tactics. Provided the product is available at RRP in _one_ of the shops within the same company (i.e. a chain) for a minimum time period (say, 60 days), it can be priced as a "discount" in another store. The trick used it to have a shop in the middle of nowhere (for example, north Scotland) which rotates products on the shop floor. This shop operates purely at a loss except for some desperate customers who will pay through the nose for a product due to convenience. A mattress would be for sale at GBP 999 for 60 days there, and promoted as a discount at GBP 499 in _every other store_ they own. They make profit on selling 50x products at the discount vs. a single product at original price.

mianos 5y ago

Yes. This exact issue with bedding companies has lead to several prosecutions. For example, permanently making up fake prices just to advertise a discount: - https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/snooze-admits-two-price-advertising-likely-to-mislead https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/snooze-admits-two-pric... - https://www.accc.gov.au/public-registers/undertakings-registers/s87b-undertakings-register/furniture-and-bedding-concepts-ltd-s87b-undertaking https://www.accc.gov.au/public-registers/undertakings-regist... What is it with bedding companies and criminal miss representation of prices?

LargoLasskhyfv 5y ago
From personal experience this is true for Germany also, since decades. It's always SALE! SALE! SALE! Everything must go! %! %! %! or something similar. The same was true for carpets for a time, but they seem to have fallen out of fashion, at least I don't see it that often anymore. But this is a general thing in every downtown or shopping centre across all sectors. And similar for groceries. I enter all of these with one big default deny and fuck off mentality switched on.