‘Legendary discounts’ under the spotlight

The Ministry of Commerce focused on the discount campaigns held in Turkey in November with slogans such as ‘legendary Friday’, ‘wonderful November’ and ‘wonderful Friday’.

Among the complaints presented to the Ministry are the fact that the amounts and rates of the discounts expressed in the campaigns did not reflect the veracity, and the range of dates for which the discounted prices were applied was not specified.

The results of the examinations regarding the November discounts will be decided by the Announcement Board which will meet in January.

THE MINISTRY TAKES MEASURES

In recent years, shopping campaigns carried out with slogans such as ‘wonderful november’, ‘great friday deals’, ‘starry days’ in Turkey and around the world, and claiming to offer deep discounts on many kinds of products, are Marketing campaigns that are highly preferred by companies became a strategy.

The Ministry of Commerce focused on the discount campaigns that intensified in November.

In this process, the Ministry emphasized that discount campaigns are not deceptive and deceptive to consumers, that the declared discounts reflect the truth, and that the prices of the products subject to the discount are raised just before the campaign, not creating the perception . that there is a very high discount during the campaign period.

In addition to the examinations carried out by the ex officio ministry throughout November, these campaigns were also examined following complaints from consumers. Among the complaints reported to the Ministry are that the amounts and rates of the discounts expressed in the campaigns did not reflect the veracity, the range of dates for which the discounted prices were applied was not specified, the stock information of the goods offered for sale at a discount was not presented to consumers.

Ex officio and by complaint; Within the framework of inspection activities, which were expanded to cover many different products, from textiles to cosmetics, from technological products to jewelry, the defenses of the companies in question were requested as to whether the amounts and discount rates declared they reflect the truth. . Investigations into these campaigns are ongoing. The results of the decisions made at the meeting to be held in January 2023 by the Advertising Board of the Ministry of Commerce, which is convened at least once a month in accordance with the legislation, will be shared. Between March and November, it was reported that the Advertising Board decided 33 discount sales campaigns and an administrative fine of TL 628,586 was imposed on 27 of them for violation of the legislation.

MEETINGS HELD WITH REPRESENTATIVES OF THE SECTOR

On the other hand, the ‘Guide on Advertisements Containing Price Information and Sales Announcements and Business Practices’ was published by the Advertising Board in April in order to remove doubts regarding price information and sales announcements containing discount and guide all parties in this regard. . The guide is not limited to electronic sales platforms, it was determined as. Provincial informative meetings were held with the participation of representatives of the sector on the subject of acting in accordance with the relevant legal norms by the Ministry without making any sectoral or media discrimination. At the same time, in order to raise awareness and awareness of discount sales ads, a public service announcement was made to reach consumers on TV screens.

As a result of all these efforts, it was stated that throughout this year compliance with the relevant legislation was achieved in discount sales and advertising campaigns. (DHA)