Black Friday: real good deals or big bogus promotions?

In store or online, here we go! Black Friday is today, with all-out promises of good deals. The commercial operation is so anticipated that it also generates its share of abuses. It’s better to think twice instead of jumping on an offer that’s too tempting.

– 40%, -50% or -70%! This Friday, posters are competing to offer promotional offers, each more incredible than the last for Black Friday. A huge commercial operation from the United States which is now flooding the stores and all the platforms of online sales operators. However, if the practices are legal, the good deal often comes down to a false promotion.

This is also the alert launched by UFC – Que Choisir following the investigation carried out by its Consumer Observatory. The consumer association points to legislation in this area that is easily circumvented by professionals. “When a merchant wishes to set up a promotion, he must take as a reference price (the crossed-out price from which the amount of the reduction is calculated) the lowest price he has applied during the previous 30 days . Except that a good number of traders circumvent this provision, or even do not respect it,” notes the investigation.
Thus, merchants do not hesitate to manipulate prices to display the greatest possible reduction and more easily trigger the act of purchasing. UFC – Que Choisir has therefore easily listed several products where in reality the good deal is not what the consumer believes.