Written by Westerberg & Partners. Â
Black Friday – Some take-aways regarding price reductions Black Friday/Black Week has become one of the most important events of the year for retailers. However, price reductions are surrounded by a number of market law regulations and the Swedish Consumer Agency (KV) / The Consumer Ombudsman (KO) works actively with supervision of compliance with the rules in connection with price reductions. In 2023, KV/KO carried out a broad inspection of a number of selected industries, which resulted in a number of fines. In September 2024, the agency communicated that further reviews will be carried out in the autumn of 2024.
The European Court of Justice has also recently issued a precedent regarding how price reductions may be announced.
To avoid the most common pitfalls when marketing price reductions during Black Friday/Black Week and the like, the following should be taken into account.
When informing of a price reduction, the lowest price applied to the product in the 30 days preceding the price reduction must also be indicated (the “previous lowest price”). If the price has been reduced gradually during this period, the price that was in force before the first price reduction must be stated instead. A price reduction can be indicated in various ways, for example by expressions such as “sale”, “promotion”, “offer”, “Black Friday”, by claims that a price has been reduced by a certain percentage or by a certain amount, by stating a price in parentheses or by using crossed-out prices.
Claims of price reductions in amounts or percentages must be made in relation to the previous lowest price. The previous lowest price must be entered in the immediate vicinity of the discounted price with a style and size that is easy to read. Additional reference prices, such as “regular price”, in addition to the previous lowest price, are typically not permitted according to the KV/KO.
In addition, if expressions such as “Sale”, “Black Friday”, “Sale”, etc. are used in marketing, the price itself must be “significantly lower” than the “normal price” of the product in question. What constitutes a “significantly lower price” varies from industry to industry and between different distribution channels, but price reductions below 10 percent should be avoided and have been considered insufficient by KV/KO in sales.
