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ARCHIVED - Valencian government fines Amazon over misleading advertising
Consumer services in Alicante found the multinational firm advertised false discounts on Black Friday and Cyber Monday
Online shopping giant Amazon has been sanctioned by the Valencian government’s General Directorate of Commerce for unfair commercial practices and carrying out illegal advertising during the major sale events Black Friday and Cyber Monday last year.
The Territorial Service of Commerce and Consumer Affairs of Alicante discovered a number of irregularities after analysing the prices of 130 televisions and 100 coffee machines on Amazon in the Valencian region before and during the sales.
While shoppers were being misled into believing they were saving around 30 per cent on some items, they were actually only saving 10 per cent.
The consumer service found that a Longhi Nespresso coffee maker, for example, was priced at 69 euros on Black Friday, with claims its initial price was 99 euros, when in fact, a month earlier it had been advertised for 83 euros.
A 70-inch Philips TV, which was offered on Cyber Monday for 639.99 euros had an 'initial price' tag of 793.77 euros, but prior to the sale could be found offered at €685.95.
In short, the investigation concluded that "some prices that are indicated as 'usual price' on the discounted day are not real", so that the actual discount was a lot lower than Amazon led consumers to believe.
Initially, the multinational e-commerce and digital streaming company faced two fines of 11,000 euros, but these were reduced to 8,800 euros each after the firm, founded by Jeff Bezos, agreed to pay the penalty voluntarily.
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