E-commerce stores continue to rely on discount messages as a way to attract customers and increase sales. Despite some claims that the business models of fewer and fewer online retailers include participation in discount campaigns (such as Black Friday), a recently published study by the European Commission (EC) shows that 94% of the surveyed online stores advertised discounts during the sales period in November last year.
The violations of current legislation found in the study conducted in 25 countries can also be extremely useful for Bulgarian consumers who will shop from the currently current seasonal discounts online. Therefore, the non-commercial platform “We, the Consumers“ filmed a special podcast episode in which it not only presents, explains and comments on the main discrepancies and the risks they pose to consumers. The author and host of the podcast Gabriela Rumenova conducts a parallel study, in which she finds more examples of violation of the economic interests of consumers by online merchants.
„Review of „We, the Consumers“ came across a case in which, one step before finalizing the order, the merchant automatically adds packaging for a fee, and its removal occurs only with an action by the consumer. If he notices!...“, says the expert with 20 years of experience in the field of consumer protection.
This violation falls into the group of so-called „drip pricing“. It represents a gradual overlay of additional service and delivery fees, which increase (sometimes significantly) the final price and are very misleading. In about 10% of the e-stores checked during the study, the final price „appears“ right to the end.
„European consumer legislation requires that prices be announced from the very beginning with all mandatory costs, and that price advantages are not presented in a misleading way to consumers. For example, price comparisons should look like discounts“, Gabriela Rumenova further explains.
However, misleading discounts are the most common problem in e-shops. According to the survey, in 6 out of 10 cases it remains unclear to consumers what price the discount is actually being made from. According to European rules, fully implemented in Bulgaria, when there is a discount, the trader must also show the lowest price of the product for the last 30 days. The goal is to have traceability and for the customer to know whether the discount is real or simply the price was artificially raised before the discount.
Of the 314 online traders checked, 9 are Bulgarian. “The period of conducting the study coincided with the transition to the single European currency in Bulgaria. The legislation in force in our country at that time set an additional requirement for traders, which will remain in force until August 8, 2026. In discount campaigns, the old price should be in one currency, but the one with the discount - which the consumer will pay - should be in both leva and euro.“, recalls Gabriela Rumenova.
Approximately 1 in 5 traders set timers or messages during discount campaigns, for example: “2 pieces left!“, which are often not real. And this is the third most common type of violations of online stores in these sales methods.
The main conclusions of the large-scale inspection are that over 1/3 of the reviewed online stores mislead consumers with discounts and only 40% of them fully comply with the rules. An interesting fact is that the inspection was carried out with the inclusion of an artificial intelligence tool - EU eLab, which helps institutions more easily detect inconsistencies with the legislation. The next steps are related to the possibility of national authorities initiating formal procedures against traders if the violations are confirmed.
Meanwhile, the European Commission is already preparing a new Digital Justice Act, which will combat precisely these practices - misleading discounts, hidden fees and the so-called “dark models“.