Zalando adjusts misleading prices

During the summer sales of 2022, the Belgian Directorate General for Economic Inspection found several infringements regarding price indication on the website of clothing retailer Zalando. 

On the basis of these findings, the Belgian Economic Inspection requested the German authorities to take appropriate measures against Zalando to halt these infringements. 

Specifically the case included practices on:

• Reference prices: Zalando did not indicate a reference price (lowest price applied in the last 30 days), and calculated the discount percentages on the original price, not the reference price. As such, the crossed out price was often not the lowest price applied in the last 30 days.

A judgement from the European Court of Justice on the 26th of September 2024, confirmed the Belgian Economic Inspection’s position on the obligatory method of calculating discount percentages with regards to the reference price. 

• Misleading discount labels: Zalando made use of promotional banners displaying ‘DEAL’. This banner was displayed on products that did not have a real discount compared to the reference price. Moreover, the discount was sometimes only applicable to certain sizes or variations of the product, even though the banner was displayed for the entire product.

Read more on the official press release here in Dutch and French.