How consumers can avoid a Black Friday flop

Black Friday, which has become increasingly popular in recent years, is just around the corner again. The shopping event – now often stretched over several days or even weeks – tempts consumers with a multitude of discounts and special offers. However, bargain hunters should tread carefully, as bait-and-switch deals, fake online shops, and scams are not uncommon. Sabine Brandl, a lawyer at ERGO Rechtsschutz Leistungs-GmbH, shares what shoppers – especially online – should keep in mind.

Discounts Are Good, But Vigilance Is Better

Black Friday always takes place on the Friday following the US holiday Thanksgiving and marks the start of the busiest shopping weekend of the year. This year, it falls on 28 November. Retailers, both online and on the high street, attract millions of customers with hefty discounts and special promotions. However, these seemingly attractive price reductions are sometimes simply the result of clever pricing tools and strategic sales tactics. If you want to see through these tricks, it’s a good idea to check price comparison websites. They provide detailed price histories for products over several weeks or months, making it easy to spot whether the Black Friday price is truly the lowest or whether it was increased shortly beforehand. In addition, the EU has regulated discount cam-paigns with the so-called Omnibus Directive. Since 2022, retailers in the EU advertising a reduced price must display the lowest price the product was sold for in the previous 30 days. This is intend-ed to prevent the practice of raising prices shortly before sales and then advertising supposedly huge discounts.

Beware of Fake Shops

Wherever there are genuine bargains to be found, fraudsters are never far behind. So-called fake shops online often look, at first glance, just like legitimate websites. Some are exact copies of real sites or are made to closely resemble them. By using copied images, fake quality seals and clever-ly stolen product information, they quickly gain the trust of potential customers and lure them into a trap. “Fake shops look deceptively similar to reputable providers’ sites. Their sole purpose is to sell non-existent goods in exchange for advance payment and, in the process, steal payment details or personal information,” explains Sabine Brandl, legal expert at ERGO. Often, the ordered goods never arrive and the money is gone. Criminals also lure consumers with low prices. “If the offer for the latest smartphone seems too good to be true, it usually is,” says Sabine Brandl. If in doubt, check the shop’s name and address in the commercial register. Reviews on independent review sites can also help you form an opinion. If a website lacks an ‘impressum’ (legal notice), that’s a sign of possible fraud. If a supposedly German shop gives an IBAN for payment that doesn’t start with DE, that’s another red flag. Fake shops often use counterfeit quality seals – a genuine seal should link to the issuer’s homepage when clicked, so you can verify its authenticity. Finally, it’s best to close a shopping site immediately if prepayment is the only payment method offered. Some-times, this only becomes apparent at the end of the checkout process, when all other payment op-tions suddenly disappear.

What To Do If You Fall Victim

If you have already transferred money, contact your bank immediately and try to reverse the pay-ment. “This is usually possible within the first few hours after purchase,” the lawyer explains. With direct debits, consumers have up to eight weeks to have the transaction reversed. Credit card payments can also be reversed. Often, you must be able to show that you have tried to recover the money directly from the online retailer. In any case, keep all evidence of your supposed purchase and, if in doubt, take a screenshot of the offer. Even if these documents have no legal force, they can serve as proof of fraud.

Digital Help for Assessing Online Shop Legitimacy

There is a simple way to spot fake online shops: the Fakeshop Finder from the Verbraucherzentrale (Consumer Advice Centre). Consumers can enter the URL of the website in question and instantly check how trustworthy it is. The Fakeshop Finder checks whether there is a legal notice, compares the address in the notice with the address registered for the VAT ID, and looks up reviews on Trusted Shops and Trustpilot:
https://www.verbraucherzentrale.de/fakeshopfinder-71560