Tango gas station taken to task for posting fake discounts
A judge at the Dutch Advertising Code Committee ruled that a Tango petrol station advertised in a misleading way. The discount price it announced did not really refer to a discount.
A customer of the petrol station on Hamerstraat in Amsterdam brought the case before the Advertising Code Committee. It found that Tango was indeed misleading. After all, the filling station announced “Euro 95 1,999 – Discount 170” and “Diesel 1,769 – Discount 110”. It took research on Tango’s website to discover that the discount was relative to the recommended retail price.
What Tango did not tell even there was that that recommended price was not a nationally agreed guideline but a self-determined price, which the chain can therefore set higher at will to create discounts. However, the ‘Guidelines to Directive 2005/29/EC’ of 29 December 2021 spell out that any use of recommended prices must be explained, and that explanation must be stated immediately and everywhere with the reference price.
Invented recommended price
The guidelines state, “A recommended price is a price as set by the manufacturer or supplier, as a third party, at least the average consumer will perceive a recommended price as such. What (therefore) cannot be a recommended price, against which a discount can be applied, is a ‘recommended price’ made up by the seller himself.”
That position was now confirmed by a ruling by the chairman of the Advertising Code Committee in case 2023/00597. He enjoined the advertiser to stop advertising in such a way. A goody-goody “naughty, may not be allowed anymore”, in other words. As such, the Advertising Code Foundation is not a statutory body and cannot issue fines.
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