Nine major e-commerce sites are in the sights of UFC-Que Choisir, which denounces the massive publication of fraudulent promotions.
One year after the entry into force of the European Omnibus directive in France against misleading promotions, false opinions and abusive canvassing, the UFC-Que Choisir notes that the questionable practices of professionals remain anchored. The consumer association is filing a complaint against eight e-commerce sites for deceptive commercial practices: Amazon, ASOS, Cdiscount, E.Leclerc, La Redoute, Rue du Commerce, Veepee and Zalando.
96.6% of promotional ads are illegal
Remember that according to the Omnibus Directive, any display of a price reduction must be based on the lowest price rate charged by the seller during the month preceding the new promotion. According to the findings of UFC-Que Choisir, which analyzed 6,586 ads with a crossed out price, only 3.4% of ads comply with the rules dictated by Omnibus.
The association denounces the establishment of a “comparison price”titled in different ways depending on the merchant: ” Advised sale price “, ” Originally “, ” Old price “, “Average price on the marketplace”, “Average price on competing sites”, “Price provided by the seller”… so many fuzzy designations that aim to maintain consumer confusion.
E-commerce sites “freely choose a reference price with which to compare their product, so as to present their offer as a bargain not to be missed”protests the UFC-Que Choisir.
The sites maintain confusion
The association also believes “that it is very difficult to tell the difference between a price reduction announcement that complies with the regulations and one that does not”, and that this situation is a strategy of traders to deceive customers. The visual format adopted by the sites is deliberately similar in both cases, misleading consumers. For UFC-Que Choisir, there is no doubt: it is “clearly of a deceptive commercial practice, of which the trader is guilty”.
According to the organization’s calculations, a price reduction respecting Omnibus is on average 6%, compared to 26.5% for fake promotions, proving “a deplorable ploy to push consumers to buy by making them believe that it is a good deal”.
The UFC-Que Choisir announces that it has seized the European Commission, which already published a report last February on the manipulation practices of e-commerce sites. She also filed a complaint for misleading commercial practices with the Paris public prosecutor against Amazon, ASOS, Cdiscount, E.Leclerc, La Redoute, Rue du Commerce, Veepee and Zalando.
Source : What to choose
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