Is that discount real? How to check a "was" price
A struck-through price is the most persuasive number on any product page, and the one you are least able to check at a glance. “Was £200, now £150” only means something if £200 was a price the shop genuinely charged. This guide covers what UK law says about that, the tactics that are banned outright, a simple routine for testing a discount before you pay, and where to go when a saving turns out to be invented.
What UK law says about “was” prices
The UK’s rules on unfair commercial practices now sit in Part 4 of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act. It replaced the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations and largely carries the old rules over, so the principles shoppers relied on before still apply. Under the Act, a misleading action includes giving false information, or presenting information deceptively, about a price or about the existence of a specific price advantage. A saving that does not exist is therefore a misleading claim in its own right, not just bad manners.
What the law does not do is set a number. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) publishes guidance on unfair commercial practices, and that guidance sets no fixed time a product must sit at its higher price before it can be advertised as reduced. The Chartered Trading Standards Institute publishes its own guidance for traders on pricing practices, revised for the new Act, built on a few principles: a “was” price should be a price the product was actually offered at before, promotions should be genuine and transparent, and a time-limited offer must state its time limit and honour it. That guidance helps traders stay on the right side of the law, but it is guidance rather than binding law in itself.
The 28-day rule is gone
Many shoppers still believe a shop must charge the higher price for 28 days before it can cut it. That was a feature of older government guidance, which asked for the higher price to be charged for 28 consecutive days, and it was dropped years ago. In its place came a principle: weigh how long an item sat at the higher price against how long the discount then runs. One month at full price followed by five months “on sale” is the kind of pattern unlikely to comply, because the sale price has become the normal price.
Why there is no safe rule of thumb
The courts have confirmed that the line is a judgement call. In a High Court case the CMA brought against a mattress seller, the court refused to adopt a fixed ratio of full-price sales to discounted sales. How much actually sold at the reference price was relevant but not decisive, and it also mattered whether the trader genuinely believed it could sell meaningful volumes at that price. A “was” price is not automatically misleading just because most sales happened at the discount.
The same seller had admitted to misleading countdown timers, false high-demand messages and misleading discount claims, so the case is no endorsement of the tactics. The practical lesson for shoppers is that no number protects you. A discount can be perfectly legal and still be a poor deal, and you cannot assume a minimum period or percentage guarantees anything. Your own price checks are the only reliable test.
Tactics that are banned outright
Some practices do not need a judgement call at all. Schedule 20 of the Act lists practices that are always banned, regardless of their effect on any individual shopper, and several of them turn up around sales. The table below sets out the ones most relevant to discounts, alongside related practices the CMA has said can mislead.
| Practice | What it looks like | Status |
|---|---|---|
| False limited-time claims | “Offer ends tonight” when the offer carries on | Banned outright |
| Restarting countdown timers | A clock hits zero, then starts again | A false limited-time claim, per CMA guidance |
| Inflated demand messages | “Sold 10 in the last 5 minutes” when stock is plentiful | Can mislead, per CMA guidance |
| Bait advertising | A headline price on stock the trader cannot reasonably supply | Banned outright |
| Bait and switch | Advertising one product, then steering you to another | Banned outright |
| Misleading “free” claims | “Free” items you are in fact paying for | Banned outright |
| Fake or hidden-incentive reviews | Invented reviews, or paid-for reviews passed off as independent | Banned outright |
| Drip pricing | Compulsory fees added during checkout | Banned; the full price with all mandatory charges must be shown upfront |
A genuine time limit is entirely legal, so a countdown is not a red flag in itself. The test is whether it means what it says. Pre-ticked optional extras are worth watching too: the CMA has taken action over pre-selected add-ons, so untick anything you did not choose before paying.
How to check a discount before you buy
The most effective protection is knowing the ordinary price yourself, because a reference price only tells you what the shop wants you to compare against. The routine below takes a few minutes and works for anything from a kettle to a laptop.
- Note the price early. Weeks before a sale you are planning around, write down the normal price of the items you actually want, or save a screenshot of the product page.
- Look at the price history. Price history tools and charts exist for many products and retailers, and they show whether the “was” price was ever charged and for how long.
- Compare across retailers. A real saving at one shop can still be dearer than the everyday price at another.
- Work out the real saving. Measure the sale price against what the item normally sells for, not against the struck-through figure.
- Check the total at checkout. Delivery, add-ons and pre-ticked extras can erase a discount, and all mandatory charges should appear in the upfront price.
Here is how that plays out on a made-up example. Imagine a pair of headphones advertised in a sale as “was £200, now £150”, a headline saving of 25%. Six weeks earlier you noted the same headphones at £165.
| Price | Saving on £150 sale price | |
|---|---|---|
| Advertised “was” price | £200 | £50 (25%) |
| Price you noted six weeks earlier | £165 | £15 (9%) |
The discount is real, just much smaller than advertised: £15 rather than £50. Whether that is worth buying for is your call, but it is a very different decision from a quarter off. The discount calculator does this sum for you when you plug in the price you actually expected to pay.
What the evidence says about big sale events
Studies of real sales back up the habit of checking. A consumer group’s study of Black Friday deals from major retailers found that about 9 in 10 were the same price or cheaper at other times of the year, and that some “was” prices had not been charged at any point in the previous 12 months. An earlier tracking study followed 83 products for six months either side of the event: only about 5% were at their cheapest on Black Friday itself, and 74% were cheaper or the same price in the six months afterwards.
None of that means the Friday after American Thanksgiving is a scam; genuinely good prices do appear. It means the event is a reason to check, not a reason to stop checking. The UK sales calendar shows which product categories tend to be cheapest at other points in the year, which gives you a better yardstick than any reference price.
Supermarket loyalty prices have also been examined. A CMA review of loyalty-scheme pricing at the big supermarkets, covering about 50,000 promoted products, found very little evidence of inflated “usual” prices, and member prices saved on average 17% to 25% off the shelf price. The catch is that a loyalty price was not always cheaper than the same item at a rival supermarket, so the saving is genuine against that shop’s own price without necessarily being the best price around.
What the price studies found
- Black Friday deals as cheap or cheaper at other times of the year
- 9 in 10
- Of 83 tracked products at their cheapest on Black Friday itself
- 5%
- Of those products cheaper or the same in the six months after
- 74%
- Average saving from supermarket member prices
- 17-25%
What to do if the discount was not real
If you bought something on the strength of a saving that turned out to be false, you have private rights against misleading practices. Depending on the circumstances, these let you unwind the contract (undo it), get a discount, or claim damages. Start by contacting the trader in writing, explaining which claim was misleading and what you want, and keep your evidence: screenshots of the sale page, your earlier price notes, and the order confirmation.
Reporting a trader is a separate step, and it works differently from a complaint. Trading Standards does not take complaints directly and cannot get you a refund; it uses reports to build a picture and act against traders. Where you report depends on where you live.
| Where you live | Who to contact |
|---|---|
| England and Wales | The Citizens Advice consumer helpline on 0808 223 1133, which passes reports to Trading Standards |
| Northern Ireland | Consumerline on 0300 123 6262 |
| Scotland | Advice Direct Scotland |
If you paid by card and the trader will not put things right, our guide to section 75 and chargeback explains the card-protection routes that may help, and the guide to online shopping rights covers your wider rights when buying online.
The rules may tighten
Enforcement has more teeth than it used to. The CMA can now fine businesses directly, up to 10% of global annual turnover, for breaching consumer law. It has fined firms over hidden mandatory fees and pre-selected extra charges, and opened investigations into misleading urgency messaging.
The government has also said it plans to consult on adding false “was” prices, invented discounts and misleading RRPs to the list of practices that are always banned. That is not law, and the details could change, so check the CMA’s current guidance if you need to know exactly where the line sits. Unless that change is made, the judgement-based rules above apply, and a few minutes of your own price checking remains the most dependable way to tell a real discount from a dressed-up one.