Consumers’ association: webshops mislead customers by showing higher recommended prices

The Consumers’ Association states on the basis of a sample that online stores mislead consumers because they display significantly higher recommended prices than the recommended prices set by the manufacturers.

The Consumers’ Association considers such a practice to be equivalent to deception, because consumers are presented with a certain advantage that does not exist in reality or is less great. It is not clear how many online stores or companies in this sample were surveyed.

Based on the research, the Consumers’ Association highlights a number of examples, such as a Canon camera that was displayed at Kamera Express with a suggested retail price of 409 euros and a sales price of 289 euros. The Consumers’ Association states that the actual suggested retail price turned out to be 345 euros, making the camera ‘seemed much cheaper than it actually was’. Similar examples came up more often during the study, such as at Keukenloods; this shop showed a recommended retail price for a dishwasher that was more than 500 euros higher than the actual recommended price.

According to the Consumers’ Association, most of the stores that responded to the survey say that it is often a matter of mistakes and that, for example, they have copied the prices from an old or incorrect list. In addition, they report that they periodically receive new suggested retail prices from manufacturers, but that they would not get around to adjusting the prices on their website.

Olof King, the consumer advocacy director, states that this in any case concerns situations in which consumers have been misled and that this is not allowed. He says his organization will continue to monitor this, address companies and ‘if necessary’ ask the regulator to act.

According to the Consumers’ Association, the prices of the largest online stores that offer electronics, bicycles and baby items were examined in the sample. In addition, web stores that are ‘often mentioned in price comparison sites’ were also examined.