Spot checks: focus on displaying promotional prices

By: Trademagazin Date: 2025. 08. 29. 10:57

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The National Trade and Consumer Protection Authority (NKFH), in cooperation with county government offices, is conducting increased inspections in stores and online commerce to filter out unfair price discounts. The inspections focus particularly on key sale periods – such as coupon days, Black Friday and the Christmas shopping season.

The 30-day rule is the basis

According to the regulation, which came into force in May 2022, price discounts must always be compared to the lowest price of the previous 30 days. This is intended to ensure that customers cannot be misled by artificially increased prices that are then advertised as a sale. It is also important that the previous unit price before the sale is also displayed, so that consumers get an accurate picture of the true extent of the discounts.

The NKFH inspected nearly four thousand stores nationwide last year. In 96 cases, the sale price did not comply with the rules, in 88 cases the unit price did not comply, and in 34 stores the previous price was not displayed. Although these figures are alarming, overall there is an improvement: the complaint rate, which was 16 percent in 2022, decreased to 13 percent in 2023, and in 2024 irregularities only occurred occasionally in traditional stores.

Online commerce in focus

According to the consumer protection authority, transparent display of prices plays a key role in customers’ decisions. Therefore, the aim of the inspections is not only to uncover violations, but also to maintain fair market competition. The NKFH emphasizes that in the future, increasing attention will be paid to examining online commerce, since the risk of abuse increases the most in this area with the rise of digital purchases.

EU consumer protection authorities are also investigating the practice of displaying promotional prices, and significant fines have been imposed in several member states. According to Hungarian experience, increased regulatory presence is also justified, because this is the only way to guarantee that discounts truly represent savings for customers, and not misleading marketing tactics.

Overall, the regulation of promotional prices has brought a clearer picture to consumers in recent years, but the authorities continue to strictly monitor stores and online stores to ensure that real discounts are behind the promotions.