European Commission: 43 percent of online stores violated EU rules during the Advent period

The sellers announced a price reduction campaign for more than half of the examined products, but 23 percent of them did not comply with EU legislation. The EU directive on price marking stipulates that stores and online marketplaces, when announcing a discount, must indicate the lowest price applied to the product in the previous 30 days.

When presenting the results of the research, Didier Reynders, the commissioner responsible for legal enforcement, said: “consumers are still exposed to a large number of false discounts and unfair commercial practices. This is a violation of EU law.”

The commissioner called on all online retailers to fully respect the rules and review the display of discounts.