Tackling misleading offers by supermarkets
Supermarkets continue to employ tricks in the presentation of offers that mislead consumers in a way that the “offers function as a conveyor belt for price increases,” as a senior official at the Development Ministry pointed out to Kathimerini.
Although there has been some rationalization in the field of promotions after the imposition of measures since last spring, the phenomena of fictitious offers that constitute misleading practices have not disappeared. And that is because the industry’s Ethics Code and certain other legal provisions are applied to the rest of the retail trade but not to the organized retail trade of food. The reason is the complexity that governs the determination of prices in supermarkets, both due to the thousands of product codes they have and to the fact that the offers are part of commercial agreements with the suppliers.
However, according to Kathimerini information, in the first two months of 2025 there will be the required changes in this sector as well, so as to combat unfair commercial practices, especially in offers and discounts.
The changes, which will be in the labeling and the way products are presented in the store, as well as in relations between suppliers and retailers, will focus on whether the legislation on the announcement of a price reduction is correctly applied to the “buy one, get one free” offers, while the framework is expected to be clarified also with regard to reward programs. Special working groups have been set up for this purpose by ministry officials with the participation of supermarket representatives.
Rules are also expected to enter customer reward programs, to avoid the phenomenon of misleading discounts hidden behind seemingly personalized offers.
For example, if a chain advertises that one day they have 20% off all frozen vegetables to customers who have a loyalty card (i.e. are members of the rewards program) then this is not a personal discount – which in this case would not concern the law on price reduction announcements – but general, especially if many consumers have a card or it is easy to get it at the time in the store.
