This year Black Week — the discounted shopping campaign running Monday to Friday — will be affected by a change to Finland's Consumer Protection Act.
Introduced at the beginning of the year, the reform aims to combat temporary price hikes, the act of artifically raising product prices in order for sales margins to appear larger.
The regulation, already in effect in several EU countries, helps consumers better understand the real costs of products.
"While larger chain stores are already familiar with the law, smaller businesses may not be. Businesses have to indicate the lowest price a product has been for the past 30 days," says Hertta Hartikainen from the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority.
Hartikainen added that the authority also urges all vendors to cease the habit of underpricing.
Consumer advocate Katri Väänänen recently noted that "the lowest price a product has been been is often not visible at all or it's very unclear, written in a small font. Sometimes the lowest price is even false."
Plan, save and wait
However, there have also been cases of retailers circumventing the law by a practice called 'quarantining'.
"We have received information that some sale products from the previous season have been kept in storage and then brought back for sale, so the 30-day rule is no longer in effect," Hartikainen noted.
According to Hintaopas, an online service which compares product prices, companies have increased the cost of products earlier so they can offer larger discounts later.
"15 of the 20 most popular product categories cost more in October than the average this year," says Liisa Matinvesi-Bassett, Country Director of Hintaopas.
Many people in Finland plan, save and wait for Black Friday discounts. According to Hintaoppa's online survey, 47 percent of people plan to shop on Black Friday, which is four percent higher than last year's figure. More than half of consumers also plan to buy Christmas gifts during the Black Friday sales.
"Employment figures are still good and inflation is decreasing, so people with work have better purchasing power," says Kurjenoja.
Matinvesi-Bassetti recommends that "if a consumer has bought from an EU store or an EU store online, then you can be pretty sure that the 30-day lowest price is displayed. But if you buy from outside the EU, where this law doesn't exist, it is important to compare prices and not just go for the big discount."
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