The omnibus exposed the tricks of salespeople. But there are also irregularities. UOKiK is already receiving complaints

The Omnibus Directive, which entered into force on January 1 this year, requires shops to display the lowest price of a given product in the last 30 days. Sellers are forced to provide it (almost) whenever they discount a given product. All this to eliminate the phenomenon of false promotions when the promotional price is higher than the regular one.

UOKiK receives complaints and announces intervention. Omnibus won with shops?

The directive does not specify how the lowest price from the last 30 days is to be indicated, but it must be visible. Stores usually place it under the “regular” and promotional price as the so-called third price. It turns out, however, that there are violations in this matter, and the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection already knows about it.

As “Rzeczpospolita” found out, the first complaints about “incorrect display of price reductions” are already being submitted to UOKiK. In a comment sent to the newspaper, the office admits that it monitors the situation itself in terms of adapting to the new regulations and sees that “not everyone correctly applies” to the provisions of the directive.

UOKiK also announces that it will investigate cases of infringement and will ensure that “the law in this respect is respected to the benefit of consumers”. We will probably soon be able to expect information on possible penalties for dishonest sellers.

The omnibus laid bare the intentions of the shops. Promotional price lower than the regular one

As we wrote on the first Monday of January, Omnibus immediately exposed the practices used by a significant part of online stores. Then we looked at discounted smartphones, computers, washing machines, etc. In many cases, the promotional price was the same or slightly higher than the one from the last 30 days.

What’s worse, it was not difficult to find products that – despite the seemingly very attractive promotion – were offered even several hundred zlotys more than before the discount. Similar practices were quickly noticed by Internet users who flooded the network with examples of “the best” promotions.