The German Retail Association (HDE) has clearly criticized the new Price Indication Ordinance that will come into force in retail from Saturday. “Especially the less affluent consumers will feel the consequences of this unnecessary regulation because they will probably be less able to benefit from bargains in the future,” said HDE Managing Director Stefan Genth on Wednesday of the German Press Agency.
A thorn in the side of the trade is above all the regulation that in the future dealers have to indicate the lowest price that was asked for the product within the last 30 days in discount campaigns. This is “unnecessary”, said Genth. Consumers are already adequately protected from moon prices by the regulations in force to date.
The HDE general manager warned that retail would face major challenges as a result of the new regulation. “Price reductions will only be possible in the future if the dealer can state the lowest price in the last 30 days and mark it as a “reference price”. That is not easy with many thousands of articles in the markets and online shops. The EDP often does not archive the prices of the past.
“Advertising with price reductions is also made considerably more difficult in certain media, since there are limits to the announcement of the previous price on radio or television,” criticized Genth. Certain forms of price advertising such as “20 percent off everything” would even be called into question overall. ” With such campaigns, it is completely impractical to provide all products in the range with a reference price,” said Genth.
The new regulation also leads to numerous uncertainties in the interpretation, which would probably have to be clarified in court. For this reason, a clear reluctance on the part of many retailers to reduce prices is initially to be expected – to the detriment of consumers. (dpa)