The least consumers should expect from retailers is honesty and transparency when it comes to product pricing. This is of particular importance during sales windows, when shoppers can be particularly vulnerable to manipulation.
In a blizzard of promotional promises it can be difficult for the public to assess if deals on the table are real, or if the figures have been massaged to exaggerate the scale of the bargains.
Sales pricing legislation introduced in 2022 requires traders to base discounts on the lowest price over a 30-day period before a sale begins and to display that lower price clearly - in essence it stops retailers hiking prices briefly in the run-up to a sale, before slashing them to suggest bigger savings.
The early tests of the legislation have found some retailers wanting. Last week in the Dublin District Court, Boots admitted breaching the legislation following an online pricing sweep conducted by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) in November 2023.
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That sweep pinpointed three products that were listed as being on sale at prices that were either higher or at the same level as they had been at in the days leading up to a Black Friday sale. In erring in such a fashion, the pharmacy joined Lifestyle Sports, DID Electrical and Rath-Wood Home and Garden World who were before the courts in March.
Boots expressed regret for the pricing anomalies which they attributed to human error and pointed out that the products represented a minuscule fraction of what was on promotion at the time the CCPC conducted its investigation. And no doubt this was indeed the case.
While the transgressions were limited in scale, the CCPC deserves credit for taking the actions which should serve as a warning to others. The shops will no doubt wish they had not made headlines in such a fashion but ultimately, they and other retailers as well as consumers will benefit from the knowledge the system is slowly becoming more robust and more transparent.
