A sale says what is reduced, by how much, and until when
Seasonal guideline. Applies in the run-up to Black Friday, Cyber Week and Christmas, in addition to the year-round guidelines. Holiday readiness →
Legal references (EU)
- Dir 2005/29/EC Art. 7
Some guidelines reference legal provisions. These references identify the rules a guideline relates to. They are not legal advice, they are not a statement that any particular shop complies or does not comply, and they may not reflect the current state of national transposition. Consult qualified counsel for questions about your own compliance.
What is being checked
Whether every sale message (banner, badge, email landing page) answers four questions in plain words, either directly or with one click: Which products are reduced? By how much? From when until when, including the time? Can it be combined with discount codes?
Why it matters
"Black Week, up to 50 % off" leaves the shopper guessing. Is the product they want included? Is it 50 % or 10 %? Does the sale end tonight or on Monday? Every open question is a reason to wait, to compare, or to leave.
Clear terms also protect the shop. Customer service gets fewer questions, and there are fewer disappointed customers at checkout when a code does not work on top of the sale price.
Failure signals
- The banner says "up to X %" and there is no way to see which products get that amount.
- No end date or end time is given, or the time has no time zone where the shop sells across zones.
- The terms exist only in the legal pages.
- Excluded brands or categories are not named.
- The shopper only learns at checkout that a code cannot be combined with sale prices.
- The banner, the email and the sale page state different end dates.
How to verify
- Open the site-wide sale banner. Confirm it names the end date and time, or links in one click to a page that does.
- On that page, confirm it states which products are included, what the reduction is, any exclusions, and whether codes can be combined.
- Pick three products shown in the sale. Confirm the reduction on each product page matches what the banner promised.
- Add a sale product to the cart and enter a valid code. Confirm the result matches what the terms said.
- Compare the end date in the banner, on the sale page and in the latest campaign email.
Recommended fix
Write one short sale terms block with the four answers. Link every sale banner and badge to it. Keep the dates in one setting so banner, page and checkout cannot drift apart. If a reduction is shown against a former price, follow PDP-DC-REF-01.