Consumer watchdog prosecutes Irish retailers for misleading Black Friday sales 

The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) conducted the sweeps over the 2023-2024 winter sales season. Alongside the current prosecutions, a number of other traders have been interviewed under caution, and further prosecutions are expected to follow.  

The CCPC said the sweep identified significant and widespread breaches of the law. They included misleading pricing and fake discounts. The enforcement actions by the CCPC are criminal prosecutions and under this law, the court can impose a Class A fine of up to €5,000.

The watchdog confirmed the prosecutions today, Black Friday, viewed as a key date in retailers' calendars. The CCPC said its officers will also be inspecting the discounts on offer to consumers this Black Friday to ensure they are genuine.

CCPC Chair Brian McHugh said the large number of sales pricing inspections last year looked at both online and in-store pricing. 

"Our inspectors saw many excellent examples of accurate sales pricing and sales communications, however, we also identified retailers where there was significant and widespread breaches of the law. Those traders are now being prosecuted by the CCPC, with the first wave of cases due before the courts in January," he said.

Ultimately, misleading sale discounts harm consumers and harm competition. Businesses need to able to compete for consumers openly and honestly on price. This Black Friday, the CCPC is calling on both consumers and business owners to report any suspected fake discounts or misleading pricing to the CCPC.

Regulations passed in November 2022 require retailers now to show discounts compared to the prior price. This prior price must be the lowest price the product was on sale for in the previous 30 days. Last week, the CCPC released new research indicating low levels of consumer trust in discounts, with less than a third (30%) of consumers trusting discounts displayed by businesses are genuine. 

About two in three of all consumers reported being aware of the rules for the display of discount information.

Trust in the discounts on offer is low, with just 30% of people saying they trust sale prices displayed by businesses are genuine.

Almost 80% of Black Friday shoppers plan to research the advertised discount of items before buying, with those aged over 45 most likely to do some research.

The watchdog said young people were more likely to shop in the sales and were more likely to trust advertised discounts, and were less likely to do research about prices, which may make them vulnerable to fake discounts.