Some Black Friday sales advertisements made by Australian businesses may have misled shoppers, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has found.
The government regulator flagged concerning practices of businesses such as claiming sitewide sales (when not everything on the site was on sale), fine print or disclaimers that limit headline claims – including member-only deals – and misleading before-and-after pricing.
The ACCC also called out the use of ‘recommended retail pricing’ (RRP), particularly if the business has not sold the product at the “RRP” price recently and for a reasonable period of time.
Moreover, the ACCC warned about retailers using ‘up to X per cent off’ where the ‘up to’ text is not prominently visible or where few or very few products are discounted by the mentioned percentage.
“We are further considering some of these examples for investigation and action, and the ACCC has already asked a number of retailers to justify their advertising claims,” said Catriona Lowe, ACCC deputy chair.
“In the meantime, we are warning retailers ahead of post-Christmas sales that they must comply with Australian Consumer Law in all the claims they make.”
This article was first published on sibling website Internet Retailing.
