It often happens that sellers increase the price of a product in a short period of time and then use a pre-price that suggests that the customer will receive a large discount. Another method used is that the seller uses the recommended retail price as the starting price, which gives the impression that the customer receives a reasonable discount. In both cases, the from-before price gives a misleading picture of the discount you receive as a consumer. For that reason, new legislation will apply from 28 May 2022 to better protect consumers.
The new legislation is the result of a change in European regulations that came into effect at the end of 2019. All EU countries have been given 2 years to adapt their own legislation to this. The amendment to the existing Dutch Prices Act will come into effect on May 28, 2022. The Dutch Authority for Consumers & Markets (ACM) will supervise this from the effective date of commencement.
The most important and biggest change is that when you as a seller show a from-for price for a product, the from-price must correspond to the lowest price that the seller has applied during the previous period of at least 30 days.
An exception to the legislation applies to products with a best-before date, such as fresh products like meat, fish and dairy.
Another exception is incremental discounts on the same product. This can, for example, apply to clothing that is first given a 20%, then 30% and finally 50% discount. Reference may always be made to the original price for which the first price reduction was announced.
Used sources:
EN
Nederlands 