The government is pushing for change to better protect the consumer and ensure that promotions are “effectively real” and “understandable”.
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From 28 May 2022, businesses and economic operators will be required to comply with new rules regarding sales practices or promotions. The price of a specific product on sale must be lower than the price charged 30 days before it was fixed, even if those days are already included periods of sales or promotions is “whatever means of communication” through which cost reductions are announced. In addition, it becomes mandatory to display the “lowest previously quoted price” that was used as a reference to the corresponding promotion. ”
Exceptions apply to perishable agricultural and food products, as well as “products which expire four weeks in advance.” In both cases, the price reduction must be quoted as “the lowest price in the last 15 consecutive days when it was sold” or, if lower, “during the entire period of public availability”. This is a regime that, from the point of view of the government, allows you to “prevent food waste”.
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This is what is provided in decree-lei published Friday in Diário da República and partially transposes the European Union (EU) directive on consumer protection. However, the diploma excludes the authorizing issue related to the new rules, since this decision is “included in the legislative reserve of powers of the Assembly of the Republic”, which was dissolved until December 5th.
Another change envisaged by the decree-law concerns comparisons with reference prices, which must be “factually real” and “clear”. Thus, the diploma prohibits the use of different units of measurement and comparisons of products in different conditions, while economic operators are prohibited from comparing, for example, a product sold in packages (“ packs ”) with the same product. sold in units.
Rules for commercialization the products are presented on the market for the first time. In these cases, at the end of the promotion period for the respective product, the economic operators must demonstrate that the new price is “effectively charged within a reasonable period of three months after the promotion”.
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The diploma also consolidates the “broader concept” of the product concept, which now includes not only goods and services, but also digital content and services. Thus, the Government believes that this is an adaptation to “new requirements to protect consumers from fraud, in particular, practices related to digital reality.”
