Peeters calls for tougher fines for fake sales prices

Federal minister for consumer affairs Kris Peeters has proposed increasing the fines for retailers who offer fake discounts during sales periods. Fines currently run from €1,500 to €60,000.

The law currently states that the official sales periods – in January and July – should be preceded by a 30-day period where no price cuts are offered. That way sales prices can be compared to the original prices.

Aside from “sales” prices often simply being the same as the original price, frequently discounts have no bearing on any original price. Shops buy in extra stock just before the sales period and sell it at an inflated price in order to offer it at a “discount” during the sales.

The proposed measure follows reports of fake discounts offered by Mango retailers at stores in Antwerp and Brussels, where the sales price ticket was no different from the normal price ticket. The shop owner argued the original ticket carried the price in Spain and Portugal, where prices are lower.

“We’re familiar with this sort of practice,” a spokesperson for Peeters said. “We can’t talk about individual cases, but the law makes it more difficult to check if retailers are in fact offering a discounted price.”