Over 30% of Black Friday sales involved prices higher than the lowest product price prior to the sale, consumer organisation Test Achats warned.
Test Achats analysed more than 1,000 Black Friday sales, of which 234 were studied more in detail.
“On average, the announced reduction was 26%, whereas in reality you only got 8%,” the consumer organisation said, adding that “the biggest exaggerators in our sample” were Dutch webshop Bol.com and electronics multinational MediaMarkt, exaggerating with 24 and 25% respectively.
High tech products saw average apparent reductions of 27%, while the real reductions were a mere 9%, according to Test Achats. For household electrical appliances, the discrepancy was bigger, with 30% reductions advertised while amounting to 7% in reality.
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That said, 151 of the 234 sales that were studied closely involved correct deals, the consumer organisation clarified, with Krëfel representing nearly 1 in 5 of those fair sales.
Black Friday is a day of trade promotions imported from the United States, occurring the day after Thanksgiving, a holiday that occurs each year on the third Thursday of November.
Jason Spinks
The Brussels Times
