Case law

  • Case Details
    • National ID: ref. code: P/0237/08/2011
    • Member State: Slovakia
    • Common Name:link
    • Decision type: Administrative decision, first degree
    • Decision date: 26/09/2011
    • Court: Slovak Trade Inspection, Košice
    • Subject:
    • Plaintiff:
    • Defendant: TESCO STORES SR, a.s.
    • Keywords: advertisement, misleading advertising, misleading price, price, price comparison, price information, price reductions
  • Directive Articles
    Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, Chapter 2, Article 5, 1.
  • Headnote
    Announcing a price reduction constitutes a misleading practice in the event it is established that the applicable price is not lower than the price previously applied by the trader for that product.
  • Facts
    At the time of the inspection of defendant, a retailer, by the Slovak Trade Inspection, the defendant was selling to consumers 14 kinds of goods marked as "DISCOUNTED", whereas the price of these goods was higher than the last registered applicable price for the same goods.
  • Legal issue
    The administrative body decided that the defendant had breached the prohibition on misleading information, by inducing the consumer to believe that it could obtain goods at a lower price than the price previously applicable. However, as it was established that the announced discount price was in reality not a reduced price, such information is likely to cause the consumer to take a transactional decision that he would not have taken otherwise. The court reminded that the consumer is likely to make a differing decision in case it would have been provided with accurate and complete information.
  • Decision

    Does announcing a price reduction constitute a misleading practice, in the event it is established that the applicable price is not lower than the price previously applied by the trader for that product?

    Full text: Full text

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  • Result
    The administrative body imposed a fine of  1.000 Euro considering the long period of time during which the breach had occurred.