Black Friday brings fines for retailers

The 29th of November 2019 marked another "Black Friday", with several price reduction campaigns carried out by the majority of the commerce premises across the country.

As price reduction campaigns, regardless of their form, they are subject to specific regulations which, in common, share the purpose of ensuring greater protection for consumers.

The Portuguese authorities, namely the Authority for Economic and Food Safety (ASAE), has been making significant efforts to provide information on the requirements and procedures that must be complied with in relation to the aforementioned price reduction commercial practices, having even developed the necessary instruments for these practices to be communicated through digital means.

However, and as part of an inspection carried out between the 28 and 29 of November 2019, ASAE has opened around 57 misdemeanor proceedings for breach of the above identified rules, out of a total of 387 (physical and online) establishments that were subject of inspection.

Most of the identified infringements are related to non-compliance with the rules established in the Price Reduction Commercial Practices Legal Framework, established by Decree-Law no. 70/2007, of 26 March, as republished by Decree-Law no. 109/2019, of 14 August.

The majority of the identified infringements were related with the following matters:

▪ Use of forbidden expressions to announce price reductions, in violation of paragraph 4 of article 3 of Decree-Law no. 70/2007;

▪ Non-compliance with the rules regarding prices display, in accordance with article 6 of Decree-Law no. 70/2007;

▪ Lack of indication of the start date and the duration of the price reduction category, in violation of article 4 of Decree-Law no. 70/2007;

▪ Failure to provide with the price markdown notice ("Declaração de Saldos"), as required by article 10 of Decree-Law no. 70/2007.

It is important not to forget these regulations when planning for the next "Black Friday" or price reduction campaign.