"99% of black friday sales are not real." The OCU does not hesitate after studying the evolution of online prices before the start of the shopping season. Almost all of the offers for this Friday, November 25, are false because they do not comply with the law, they affirm from the consumer association.
As detailed by the OCU, trade regulations establish in article 20.1 that the price of a discount must be calculated on the cheapest price of a product in the last 30 days. "The previous price shall be understood to be the lowest that had been applied to identical products in the preceding thirty days," it details in its wording. "In practice this is not respected. The price reduction is not being calculated on the cheapest price," they say.
The conclusion comes after analyzing 16,000 prices for electronics, household appliances and other products on the main websites with offers for Black Friday for a month. In almost 100% of the cases, the previous price on which a discount is presented "is not the lowest of the last 30 days, in almost all cases those prices are inflated." Thus, real savings are disrupted: if electronics have an announced discount of 25% on average, in reality prices have risen on average by 3% over the minimum price they have had in the last 30 days.
Among the main portals and chains -Amazon, El Corte Inglés, Media Markt...- of the 5,072 products that have a previous price specified, only 23 comply with the law correctly and report the lowest price in a month.
The greatest difference in prices studied is observed in ETuyo, where a saving of 39% is announced but 4% more is actually being paid than its lowest cost in the last month.
The trend of higher real prices is repeated in most centers. In El Corte Inglés and Media Markt they are 7% more expensive, in Amazon 6%, in Si Hogar 4% and in Carrefour Online or Nuevoelectro 3%. "At the beginning of the black week (the week of black friday discounts), few sales, and yes, prices are somewhat more expensive than at some point last month.
As a great solution, from the OCU it is recommended to consult comparators and price advisors that do continuous monitoring.
