RE: Asos and Dunelm Results8 Apr 2021 13:09
This from the BBC news website:
it is not an offence for different retailers to sell the same item at different prices even if they are owned by the same company.
But "it could be misleading if consumers think they are buying a particular brand, when this is not the case," said Sylvia Rook, a lead officer from the Chartered Trading Standards institute.
"Consumers may expect that items from one retail outlet are superior to another, and therefore be willing to pay a premium for this," she said.
A trader could be in breach of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 if an advert misleads consumers and causes them, either to make a purchase they would not have made, or to pay a higher price," she explained.
Oli Townsend, assistant deals and features editor at MoneySavingExpert.com said irregular pricing was not unique to one group.
In 2019, an MSE investigation found shoppers were paying up to 34% more for the exact same item at Littlewoods compared to Very - even though both are owned by the same company.
Mr Townsend said: "There's a question of ethics when there's such a price disparity between retailers under the same parent company - especially when in some cases they may share the same warehouse, courier and returns department.
"These brands risk their customers feeling ripped off and losing trust in that brand."
He said MSE encouraged shoppers to do price comparisons online to make sure they were getting the best deal.
"But if some retailers are cutting off or obscuring the original brand name, it makes this difficult and puts consumers at a disadvantage," he said.
Adam French, Which? consumer rights expert, said customers would "understandably see this practice as dishonest".
He said: "Companies who switch items between brands for different prices and cover up or remove the previous label risk losing consumer trust."
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