Fake Discount Checker (EU 30-Day Price Rule)

About the Fake Discount Checker (EU 30-Day Price Rule)

The Fake Discount Checker measures a sale price against the lowest price of the previous 30 days, which is the reference EU law requires a shop to show when it announces a price reduction.

The rule, in the law’s own terms

Article 6a of Directive 98/6/EC, inserted by Directive (EU) 2019/2161, says any announcement of a price reduction must indicate the prior price, and that the prior price is the lowest price the trader applied in a period of at least 30 days before the reduction. Countries may set different rules for goods that go off quickly, may allow a shorter period for products on sale for less than 30 days, and may let a progressively increasing reduction keep the price from before the first cut.

Three possible answers

• Consistent: the “was” price is the 30-day low, so the discount is real by the EU’s test.
• Inflated reference: the “was” price is above the 30-day low, so the honest discount is smaller than advertised.
• No reduction: the item sold at the sale price or less within the 30 days, so it saves nothing on that.

Where this tool stops

It is arithmetic on the prices you enter. It cannot see the shop’s price history; a tracker can. It applies EU rules only: the UK and US have their own rules on reference prices. A suspected breach is a matter for your national consumer authority.