Winter sales guide: From refund rights to mistakes to avoid, what you ...

At the end of November, Ireland’s consumer watchdog announced that it was taking four unnamed retailers to court early in the new year over breaches of rules around sales.

The shops, selling electronics, cosmetics, furniture and clothes, have bene accused by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) of deliberately misleading shoppers looking for bargains in the last winter sales season.

As it announced the planned prosecutions it pointed to very low levels of consumer trust in discounts, with less than a third of consumers believing the discounts displayed by businesses were genuine.

The lack of trust comes despite strong legal requirements on businesses when displaying discounts.

But what exactly are those requirements?

European regulations regarding sales pricing were transposed into Irish legislation at the end of November 2022 with a focus on the transparency of reductions.

Under the rules, retailers are obliged to give specific information when announcing a price reduction, in particular by including the “prior price”.

“These changes ensure that promotional announcements about price reductions are genuine,” the CCPC says.

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When advertising sales, retailers must show the prior price of an item in the price reduction announcement. This prior price is defined as the lowest price applied in the previous 30 days before the price reduction was applied.

They have to “base any reduction amount on the prior price and ensure the announcement is easily identifiable as referring to the relevant goods, clearly visible and easy for consumers to read”, according to the CCPC.

If, over the course of a sales period, there are successive reductions in the price, the prior price retailers show has to be the lowest price before the first of the price reductions was applied.

So if a product was selling at €100 and then went into sale at €50 before being further discounted to €30, the “prior price” remains €100 and is not €50.

But that is only if the retailer gradually reduces the price without interruption and it forms part of the same sales campaign.

The rules are going to present a challenge for some retailers that pushed their Black Friday sales hard this year.

That is because the calendar worked against them.

Black Friday was on November 29th so if the winter sales start on December 26th, the base price for some products will be the price they were during the Black Friday sales and not the full price the retailers might have charged when those sales ended.

The obligations retailers have is one side of the sales coin, the rights consumers have (and the ones they don’t have) are the other.

The good news is that those who buy in a sale have exactly the same consumer rights and protections as they do when they buy products at full price.

Consumers have the right to a refund, repair or replacement if an item is faulty or not as described, and no warranty or guarantee can take away the statutory rights consumers have.

And what are those statutory rights?

It does not matter if you pay full price or get something at a massive discount, what you buy must be of an acceptable standard, fit for its intended purpose and as advertised. If it is not, you are entitled to a repair, a replacement or a refund.

It is not the consumer who gets to decide which of the three Rs they get. It is up to the retailer except for some limited circumstances.

Keep an eye out for signs such as “No money refunded” or “Sale goods not exchanged”. They are meaningless and potentially illegal, although not if they have “this does not effect your statutory rights” somewhere on the sign.

It is also worth noting that if the price on the shelf and at the till don’t match, the retailer does not have to sell it at the lower price. The price on the shelf is what is known as an invitation to treat and is not a legally binding contract.

If something bought in the sales is being returned because it is flawed, you will need proof of purchase but that can take many forms, including a credit-card receipt and doesn’t have to be a store receipt.

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Retailers can’t insist a consumer deals directly with a manufacturer – the contract is always with the seller of the goods so if they try and direct you to the maker, make that point clear.

Shopping online comes with a 14-day cooling-off period – if the business is based in Ireland or elsewhere in the EU, although the consumer may have to cover the cost of postage when returning an item.

For in-store sales, retailers can set their own terms when it comes to change-of-mind returns and some suspend their normal discretionary returns for sale items.

Mistakes to avoidA bargain is not really a bargain if you don’t really want, need or will use the product. It is not a bargain just because it is cheap.Do you homework before hitting the shops. Look through your wardrobe to see what you need and then look online to see what is on offer and go in with a clear idea of what you are in the market for.The best time to shop in the sales are both early in the season and early in the day. The worst time is in the afternoons when it can be bedlam.You might get lucky shopping in the sales just as they are about to end when the reductions become a whole lot more dramatic as retailers grow more desperate to shift their unwanted stock. But the chances are you won’t.If you want to make the biggest savings, focus on the high-value, big-ticket items. The more expensive the stuff, the bigger the discounts in cash terms. Focus on quality over quantity. You are better off buying one expensive but enduring item than five cheaper ones that won’t last.