Three retail firms plead guilty to breaching law on sales pricing

Lifestyle Sports (Ireland), DID Electrical Appliances and Rath-Wood Home and Garden World were before Dublin District Court after prosecutions were brought by the State’s competition and consumer watchdog.

The three firms were ordered to pay €1,000 each to the Little Flower Penny Dinners charity and to cover the costs of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC), which took the case.

Section 1(1) of the Probation Act is to be applied in each case on compliance with court order.

The prosecutions were brought by the CCPC following online sweeps conducted over the 2023-2024 winter sales season, including Black Friday.

The new law requires traders to base any discount on the lowest price in at least the previous 30 days, and to display this price clearly on any price tag or advertisement.

A number of other traders had been investigated and further prosecutions may follow, the CCPC said.

CCPC chair Brian McHugh said: “Misleading sale discounts harm consumers and harm competition. It is vital that traders are transparent with consumers, displaying prices clearly and accurately.

“Businesses must be able to compete openly and honestly, and consumers must be able to shop with confidence.”

The cases were before Judge Anthony Halpin today in Court 8 of Dublin Metropolitan District.

The CCPC undertook a large number of inspections during Black Friday events last year and during subsequent winter sales over Christmas and in January. It examined both online and in-store pricing.

For each breach of pricing laws, a retailer can be fined up to €5,000. But such fines are inconsequential to major retailers.

Under consumer law, retailers must provide the “prior price” when displaying a price reduction. They must also base any discounts, such as an amount or a percentage off, on this prior price.

The prior price is the lowest price applied to the product at any time in the 30 days before the discount begins.

In 2023 the CCPC said it would be cracking down on fake discounts ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday at the end of this month, and during the Christmas sales periods.

It urged retailers to report rivals they suspect of offering fake discounts, saying it knew competitors would be watching each other’s prices.

The watchdog says it “welcomes any data from traders that evidences potential breaches of legislation”.

Some retailers have been accused of jacking up the price for a short period just before a sales offering, then ­reducing it and claiming it was discounting the price.

“Ensuring compliance with the new sales pricing requirements is a priority for the CCPC over the 2023 Black Friday and Christmas sales periods,” the consumer body said in a statement at the time.

It said misleading pricing practices were harmful to consumers and law-abiding businesses.