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Comment by bryanrasmussen | Hacker News Reader

>Just like how for singles day in Asia, retailers shamelessly just jack prices up beforehand to make their sale prices look like discounts.

This would be illegal in Denmark https://www.forbrugerombudsmanden.dk/hvad-gaelder/markedsfoe...

English

>If an item, for example, has cost DKK 1,000 throughout the year, and it is set up to DKK 1,500 for 6 weeks and then comes on “sale” for DKK 1,000 again, this is misleading, which is illegal.

obviously you can do stuff like set the price up for a longer period to escape being illegal but then you probably have a bunch of stock sitting around that doesn't move.

although as a general rule when I see black friday deals in Denmark I am not too thrilled at the savings, maybe because they tend to be realistic markdowns.

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I don't know how it works in Denmark but I've seen that being worked around all the times.

A typical thing is to make a special model just for the sales, which is the same as the normal model with maybe some small differences like firmware tweaks, different accessories, different stickers, etc... They put one or two samples in the corner of the shop at an inflated price, not intended for anyone to actually purchase, then when the sales come, they unload the truck and proudly show the new "discounted" price.

This way, they can justify that they had the product available for a long time, that it didn't sell, and they can officially make the discount.

They don't even have to keep stock except for the one sample. You can get a funny situation sometimes when someone actually wants to buy the sample at the sticker (inflated) price and the shop actively tries to discourage the customer from buying it despite the huge margin. That's because without the sample, they won't be able to justify the "discount" later.

Mystery meat items like TVs and mattresses are ripe for these kinds of shenanigans.

Illegal in Finland, too. But it's rarely enforced by the authorities (they would have a lot of work to follow up every case) and as a consumer you don't have the right to request damages.

If you could demand the difference you "lost" by believing in their exaggerated discount the law would be useful.

I just read somewhere last week that the The Netherlands would get a similar law. Searching for a link, I found out that its actually the European "New Deal for Consumers" package [0]

[0]:https://leveranciers.bol.com/en/need-help/legislation/legisl...

This probably just works against shoppers in Denmark, doesn't it? Global brands are going to likely raise their prices across the board. When Black Friday comes, what's left to do but limit the possible discount in countries where there is a similar restriction?

I can't tell if I'm seeing in-country prices from retailers in Denmark, but the Samsung 'The Frame' TV 55" (QE55LS03A) seems to be available all over the planet. This morning at bestbuy.com it's listed at normally $1499US, for sale at $999US. We typically get a local sales tax added to that of ~7%, so just under $1100US out the door.

I've never heard this described as a tactic of international brands, but only of retailers, so I guess I would need to see data that showed that brands actually did this.

And if the brand did this - how would it actually work. They would be telling the brand pay use 2000 for half the year, and then coming to black friday they would tell the brand now you only need to pay us 1500? I'm not getting the angle here.

I've normally thought of it as a retailer thing, but it does look a bit like it's brand-led in some cases.

I'm currently in the market for a few big ticket household items, and the Black Friday hype is everywhere I look. When I try to compare prices for specific models, they are suspiciously identical everywhere, with a few outliers charging the higher RRP.

I would expect a retailer-led approach to have a bit more variation. Just a few quid here or there, where some might have a genuine "clearance" need, others lower general overheads/margins etc.

QE55LS03A is available from >6 mayor retailers in Poland today at $900-930 free shipping, this price includes all the taxes and 2 year warranty. What is happening? US always had the lowest prices on electronics.

In Norway we have similar laws. There's also at least two sites that track prices from various online stores, so you can check cheapest price for almost any product and track it's price going back years.

In China "buy one, get one free" usually means if you buy a dress you get a belt to go with it free, or something like that.

In Europe, and I'm sure the US the items must be the same or of equivalent value. Also I believe the “full price” before discount must have been the offered price for a certain number of days in the recent past, but I can’t remember the details.

Often raising the price raises the perception and increases sales.

https://www.google.com/search?q=raising+prices+increases+sal...

Why would you need much or any stock? Just set the price to DKK 10,000. Then you don't need to carry much stock as no one will be buying and then advertise 90% off.

But you are loosing sales the rest of the year and putting you into excessive stress during the black Friday period. Not a good strategy in my book.

I'm pretty sure that would also fall under the laws regarding misleading the consumer, and also let's say I am a company that sells coffee makers - in order to do this tactic I have to choose a potentially sellable coffee maker and decide not to sell it for a longer period of time in order to make a potential killing on black friday at the same time when consumers checking prices on coffee makers on pricerunners and other tools see that you have a coffee maker that everyone else has for 1000 at 10000 and decide your company is lousy and not to want to buy anything from you?

Question is whether this is enforced? Is there a way to fine firms? Can you complain about them?

the site I linked to is the consumer rights ombudsmand, so you can complain to them, and the consumer rights ombudsmand can also undertake independent investigations if she wants (although unsure about how that works)

on edit: consumer rights of course covers more than this but going through the site can find cases where companies have been fined etc. for violations of rights - for example https://www.forbrugerombudsmanden.dk/nyheder/forbrugerombuds...

in this case company reported to police for illegal telephone sales.

We have a similar law in Romania, the agency for consumer protection fined all major retailers for our Black Friday event and even temporarily closed a website until they changed prices to match reality. The fines weren't that big so I'm not sure that they won't do it again for the next sales period.

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