Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, Chapter 2, Section 1, Article 6, 1., (d) Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, Chapter 4, Article 11

ECLI:HR:VPS:2021:56

Application of principles of misdemeanour law in consumer protection law; misleading commercial practice

The retailer offered the price of the product (laptop) as reduced, when it was actually the regular price of the product. The Croatian legal system regulates misdemeanour liability of legal entities and responsible persons in legal entities for such violations of the Consumer Protection Act, and also prescribes fines that might be imposed by misdemeanour courts.

Is the behaviour of the trader in which he presents the regular price of a product to the consumer as a reduced one and as a special form of selling a misleading commercial practice?

The court established that the legal entity and the responsible person in the legal entity had performed unfair commercial practices - misleading commercial practices. The court explained that this is because the trader, during the special discounted sale of laptops, was offering a product by pointing out a crossed out higher price along with the new price of the discounted product as a lower price. However, the lower price is the regular price, so the price shown does not represent any benefit to the buyer.

By doing so, they deceived consumers or could deceive them because it gives the impression of possible savings for consumers. The court adds that “such information misleads the average consumer about the actual worth of the laptop, the existence of a benefit, and suggests to the buyer that the product is offered at a lower price and that the consumer might conclude that it actually is a better price”.

It is also stated in this decision that the basic principles of misdemeanour law are applied to perpetrators of other misdemeanours in Croatia, as well as to those perpetrators of misdemeanours regulated to protect consumers in the Consumer Protection Act. This is evident in the part of the verdict in which the court states that the perpetrator of the misdemeanour is subject to the regulation in force at the time when the misdemeanour was committed, and if the regulation is amended one or more times after the offense is committed, lenient punishment will apply.

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Lower courts should follow this decision in determining whether it is a misleading business practice.