Various web stores, including bol.com and Coolblue, are said to mislead customers with discount promotions, states the Consumers’ Association Monday. Some products would list a larger discount that the companies actually give. Seven stores would even use these sales techniques on a structural basis.
This concerns the use of recommended prices. Manufacturers of TVs or shavers, for example, set a suggested retail price for their products. Web shops can sell the products for this suggested retail price, but can also give a discount. According to the Consumers’ Association, sellers must then state the recommended price that the manufacturer has set, but that does not always happen.
For example, a Sony television was offered for 899 euros on bol.com. According to the webshop, the suggested retail price was 1,399 euros and customers received a discount of 500 euros. However, according to the union, the actual suggested retail price was 1,000 euros and the webshop therefore gave a discount of only 101 euros.
30 of the 250 web shops surveyed use recommended prices. Twelve web shops would quote different recommended prices and seven of them would do so on a structural basis. In addition to bol.com, according to the Consumers’ Association, this concerns Coolblue, Blom Elektro, Foka, Kamera Express, Koopjedeal and Tandenbrush.com. A single store would claim to offer a discount, when in reality the retail price is actually higher than the manufacturer’s suggested retail price.
Sandra Molenaar, director of the Consumers’ Association, would prefer to see web shops no longer using recommended prices. “The suggested retail price is only intended as a manufacturer’s estimate of how much a consumer is willing to pay for a product. So stop using it, as it will encourage deception.”
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