Sale season is coming: are your promotions ready (and compliant)?

For retailers, Black Friday marks one of the busiest promotional periods of the year, with Christmas and Boxing Day sales following close behind. Discounts, countdown clocks and “limited availability” messages may help turn browsers into buyers, but they can also attract regulatory scrutiny if the deal is not quite what it seems.

That makes consumer law compliance an important part of the pre-sale checklist.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has made online pricing and sales practices an enforcement priority. Following a review of more than 400 businesses across 19 sectors, it identified potential concerns across 14 sectors, including fashion, homeware, gyms and fitness, food and drink delivery, and specifically highlighted concerns around practices such as drip pricing and misleading countdown timers. With the CMA’s strengthened powers under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCCA), businesses getting consumer law wrong can now face fines of up to 10% of global turnover.

A recent High Court decision concerning Emma Sleep has also provided an important reminder that, outside practices which the DMCCA prohibits outright, whether a commercial practice is unfair may require a case-by-case assessment.

So, before launching this year’s Black Friday, Christmas or Boxing Day campaigns, what should businesses be checking?

1. Is the “sale” price really a saving?

“Was £100, now £50.”
“50% off.”
“Our biggest sale ever.”

An apparently dramatic saving may grab attention, but businesses need to be able to substantiate the comparison behind it.

In the UK, both consumer protection law and advertising rules are relevant to savings claims. The DMCCA prohibits unfair commercial practices, including pricing practices that are false or misleading in a way that is likely to affect a consumer’s transactional decision. The Chartered Trading Standards Institute Guidance for Traders on Pricing Practices provides practical guidance on how consumer protection law applies to pricing and promotions. Importantly, whether a particular pricing practice is unlawful will depend on the circumstances rather than a single prescriptive rule.

Advertising is separately subject to the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) Code for non-broadcast advertising and the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP) Code for broadcast advertising. The Codes contain rules designed to prevent misleading advertising, including misleading pricing and savings claims. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) administers the advertising system and rules on whether advertisements breach the Codes.

When using a previous selling price to demonstrate a saving, businesses should be able to show that it provides a genuine basis for the comparison being made. This applies not only to obvious “was/now” pricing, but also to crossed-out prices, percentage reductions and statements about the amount a customer will save.

Whether a previous price provides a genuine basis for a savings claim will depend on the circumstances. Relevant factors may include how recently and for how long the higher price was charged, the product’s wider pricing history, sales made at that price and the relevant sales channel.

Businesses should therefore not simply look at the price immediately before Black Friday. If a product regularly moves between full and promotional prices or is offered at its discounted price for longer than its supposed full price, businesses should consider carefully whether the higher price provides a genuine and non-misleading basis for the advertised saving.

Selling into the EU? Watch the 30-day rule

Businesses running promotions across the UK and EU need to be particularly careful because the EU takes a more prescriptive approach.

Under the EU Price Indication Directive, where a business announces a price reduction, the relevant “prior price” is generally the lowest price applied by the trader during a period of at least 30 days before the reduction. The rule is designed to prevent businesses temporarily increasing prices before announcing an apparently significant discount.

2. When the clock strikes zero, does the sale actually end?

SALE ENDS IN 02:14:37

Countdown clocks and “last chance” messages can be legitimate selling tactics. The problem comes when the sense of urgency created is artificial.

If a countdown reaches zero only to restart, or one “limited-time” promotion is immediately replaced by another, consumers may be given the misleading impression that they need to act quickly.

This is firmly on the CMA’s radar. Its cross-economy review identified potential concerns involving misleading countdown timers, and the CMA is investigating certain retailers over whether time-limited sales actually ended when advertised.

3. “Only two left!” Make sure scarcity is real

Time is not the only way to create urgency.

“Only 2 left.”
“Selling fast.”
“High demand.”
“Don’t miss out.”

These messages can encourage consumers to make purchasing decisions more quickly. But if a business says that a product is scarce or in unusually high demand, there should be a proper basis for that statement.

The DMCCA prohibits unfair commercial practices, including misleading actions, misleading omissions and aggressive practices. It also recognises that the overall presentation of information can be deceptive.

Businesses should therefore take care with and understand how automated scarcity and popularity messages are generated online. If your website says, “only two left”, make sure you can verify and be ready to substantiate the accuracy of such statements.

4. Don’t let £39.99 become £49.99 at checkout

The advertised price may look attractive, but what happens when the customer reaches the checkout?

Under the DMCCA regime, drip pricing is a specified offence, and the CMA has made price transparency a focus of its enforcement activity. This includes concerns about businesses displaying headline prices without including mandatory additional charges from the outset. The CMA’s open letter to online retailers, published on 2 November 2026, reinforces this point: where a customer must pay a delivery charge to buy a product, the minimum mandatory delivery charge must be included in the total price shown throughout the sales process. The CAP and BCAP Codes separately contain rules governing the presentation of prices in advertising, including requirements relating to non-optional taxes, duties, fees and charges. So, don’t review the homepage in isolation. Follow the customer’s journey all the way to checkout.

5. “Up to 70% off!” But how much is actually 70% off?

The words “up to” do not provide a free pass. Headline saving claims must not mislead consumers -CAP guidance and ASA rulings help illustrate how the relevant Code rules are applied to “up to” claims in practice.

In general, a significant proportion of the products included in a promotion should attract the maximum saving advertised, and the headline claim should reflect the overall picture of the promotion. There is no fixed threshold for what amounts to a “significant proportion”, and the ASA considers this case by case. However, less than 10% is unlikely to be enough. For example, an “up to 60% off” promotion was found misleading where only 8% of the products attracted the maximum discount.

Businesses should also consider how those discounts are distributed across the range. Even if enough products technically qualify, a headline saving may still mislead if the biggest discounts are concentrated among lower-priced products.

So, before advertising “UP TO 70% OFF”, ask whether the maximum saving is available across a meaningful proportion of the range and whether the headline fairly reflects the promotion as a whole.

Before the Countdown Begins

Before pressing “publish” on a Black Friday, Christmas or Boxing Day campaign, ask:

1. Can we prove the saving?

2. Does the offer really end when we say it does?

3. Are our scarcity claims genuine?

4. Is the full price clear?

5. Are our headline savings representative?

6. Have we checked every market in which the promotion will run?

How can we help?

Whether a promotion is still being finalised or already live, we can provide practical and urgent advice on consumer law issues, including pricing and savings claims, countdown timers, scarcity messaging and drip pricing. For advice or training on an upcoming or live promotion, please contact Richard Marke, Lindsay Draffan, Leela Fair or Laura Scott.

The material in this article is provided for guidance and general information only and is not intended to constitute legal or other professional advice on which you should rely. In particular, the information should not be used as a substitute for a full and proper consultation with a suitably qualified professional. Please contact the Bates Wells team if you require further information.