At the beginning of the week comes a piece of news that many of us have been waiting for and which has to do with how retailers in the online area practice the idea of discounts. We all know that stores usually raise prices before a promotional campaign, and then the amounts appear with impressive discounts of 50-60% or even above this threshold - discounts that apply to the original price at which the products entered the stock, even if we are talking about some listed many months or even years ago, during which the prices have fallen massively.
Profit.ro informs us about new measures prepared by the Government aimed at the way in which the idea of discounts is practiced. We thus learn that the way of indicating the prices of the products offered for purchase will be changed, with an emphasis on the displayed information related to price reductions. We can call these regulations some aimed at helping end False Discounts, but only time will tell if the rules will have an impact or not.
Here is what these measures entail:
We also learn that the fine for non-compliance with the other regulations regarding the display of prices will be between 1,000 and 4,000 lei, compared to the current 500 - 1,000 lei. According to the information provided, these measures should come into force starting from November 28, 2021, and will be effectively applied only from May 28, 2022.
What we understand from here is that starting next year traders will no longer be able to practice random discounts, following these new regulations. In this way, the offers with "sensational" discounts of 70-80%, which practically deceive us about the real price of the products, could disappear. There were cases where with newly applied discounts, some products were more expensive than in the previous campaign run by the merchant.
It remains to be seen what impact these measures will have, how false discounts will be flagged and whether there is a special team dedicated to tracking price developments. From all these measures listed above, I would change the amount of the fines, the maximum threshold indicated here (40,000 lei) being a small amount for local merchants.