This is how you can avoid scams during ‘Black Friday’

He Black Fridaythe discount day imported from the United States that will take place on November 28, has become in recent years a key date for Spanish consumerswho advance their Christmas shopping to be able to take advantage of the discounts offered by different brands. According to the report ‘Consumption in the golden quarter 2025′, prepared by KPMG and Appinio, 67% prefer it as the date to make their purchases and the average planned expense is 379 euros.

Unfortunately, consumers have recently been encountering bad practices in the form of false discounts by some businesses during sales periods. This ruse consists of raise the price of different products weeks before and then lower them at its original price and thus be able to justify the reduction.

“It is advisable to start recording the prices of the products that interest you in order to detect whether future offers are really advantageous,” advises the Organization of Consumers and Users (OCU). “This simple practice allows you to check whether the advertised discounts comply with current regulations, which requires that the discounted price be compared to the lowest applied in the last 30 days“he specifies.

This group that works to defend consumer rights has carried out a study on more than 15,000 prices in 60 stores on-line electronics and appliances taking as a reference the minimum cost they had in September and October, the months prior to the expected discount day. The conclusion is that sOnly 30% of the products dropped in price during the year. Black Friday.

“In contrast, 43% were more expensivewhile the rest remained the same. Compared to the advertised discounts, many of the promotions do not represent a real discountwhich generates a perception of deception among consumers,” highlights the OCU.

The current legislation, specifically the article 20.1 of Law 7/1996 on the Regulation of Retail Tradeestablishes that the previous price shown next to the discounted one must be the lowest applied in the previous 30 days. “Whenever items are offered with a reduced price, the previous price must clearly appear on each of them together with the reduced price, except in the case of items put on sale for the first time. The previous price will be understood the minor that had been applied on identical products in the preceding thirty days (…)”, reads point 1 of the aforementioned article.

In this context, OCU remembers “that the informed consumer is the best protected”: “Register prices in advance, compare offers and be wary of excessive discounts “are key to taking advantage of Black Friday without falling into commercial traps.”

Sanctions of up to 350,000 euros

The Ministry of Consumer Affairs verified the execution of these bad practices in 2023 with the beginning of an investigation in which it was detected that, between November 18 and 19, sports shoes were offered for 29.99 euros. Later, on November 20, the price of the sneakers was raised to 48.95 euros. And already on November 24, in full Black Friday, The price of the sneakers was lowered again to 29.99 euros.

“In this way, consumers are exposed to false belief of being able to purchase a product with a discount of 18.96 eurossomething that does not correspond to reality since its price was raised in the previous days,” explained the department headed by Pablo Bustinduy.

This malpractice was punished by the Government with fines of up to 350,000 euros to seven companies. Of the companies sanctioned, three of them acknowledged having carried out these deceptive practices and did not appeal the sanction. The four of them appealed the fine to the court, which recently ruled in favor of Consumption.

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