How do I know if a Black Friday discount is real?
A real discount means a price below the usual level of the previous period, not just a crossed-out number on the label. Some retailers raise the price a few weeks before Black Friday so the displayed discount looks bigger. Price history helps you check.
Short answer
- You look at the product’s price history, not at the percentage on the label.
- You compare the reduced price with the usual level of the weeks before.
- A real discount is below the price charged before; a misleading one is just the usual price.
- The EU Omnibus rule requires an announced reduction to be stated against the lowest price applied in the 30 days before it.
- With 4pricing you have the history of the checks made since you started tracking the product.
What the law says (in brief)
- The EU Omnibus rules, also transposed in Romania, require an announced price reduction to be stated against the lowest price applied in the 30 days before the reduction.
- Their purpose is to prevent discounts inflated artificially before a campaign.
- 4pricing does not compute or certify that reference price; it only shows the prices it has read itself.
Practical example
Example: you see a product marked with a big discount and a crossed-out old price. If the history shows it cost about the same in the weeks before, the real discount is much smaller than the one displayed. Without history, you might think you are catching the deal of the year.
How to read a discount by comparing the label with the history
| What you see | What it means |
|---|---|
| Crossed-out old price on the label | Only what the store displays; it does not prove a price actually charged. |
| Campaign price | Judged against the price in the history, not against the crossed-out label. |
| Stable history before the campaign | The real discount is small or non-existent. |
| History lower than the campaign price | The offer is not the best the product has had. |
Common mistakes
- Trusting the big percentage on the label without checking the previous price.
- Buying under the pressure of a campaign countdown, without comparing.
- Comparing the crossed-out list price, not the price actually charged in the days before.
How 4pricing helps
- At every scheduled check, every 6 hours by default, the price, currency and stock status are saved.
- The history can be read per product, so you can see whether the price went up before the campaign.
- The history starts when you begin tracking the product: there is no data for the period before.
- You can set an alert at a target price and get notified when a scheduled check reaches it.