Price Indication Directive, Article 4

Displaying discounted price tags on a store’s shelves after the discount has ended is considered misleading pricing under the law, even if the duration of the discount was also displayed alongside the price tag. Repeated violations of consumer protection rules regarding price indication can be considered aggravating factors when determining the fines levied by the Consumer Protection Authority.

During a routine examination of a grocery store, the Consumer Protection Authorities found that certain products were significantly overpriced compared to their displayed price, and that the store was not indicating prices of several other products at the places of offering. The store claimed that the price tags had not yet been exchanged for newer ones.  As a result, a significant fine was levied against the store by the Consumer Protection Authority, which was justified by this not being the store’s first infraction in this regard. This was appealed by the store in an administrative process, but the second authority upheld the first authority’s decision. As a consequence, the store requested judicial review, but the Court of First Instance found in favour of the competition authorities and upheld their decisions. This led to the case going to the Supreme Court.

Whether leaving the reduced price tag on display after the end of an discount, while simultaneously noting the duration of the discount, is sufficiently informative for consumers.

The Court of First Instance reasoned (and this was upheld by the Supreme Court as well), that the noting the duration of the discount does not excuse leaving false price tags on the shelves, after analysing relevant national law (which relates to Directive 1998/6/EC).

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The Supreme Court dismissed the claimant’s claim, noting that under relevant national law, it is not sufficient for the seller to leave outdated discount tags on store shelves, even if the duration of the discount is displayed on said tags.