Holiday Shopping: Separating the Real Deals from the Fake Ones

The holiday shopping season is upon us. Over the next few weeks consumers will be inundated with deals and discounts on a variety of products. But not all offers are real deals.

Every year, TINA.org tracks hundreds of class-action lawsuits alleging all types of deceptive marketing and false advertising. This year, we saw more than a dozen retailers sued for allegedly inflating original prices (also known as reference or list prices) to make a deal seem better than it actually was. Eight of these retailers, including Lowe’s, Under Armour and Temu, also falsely advertised that items were only available for a limited time, according to the lawsuits.

In addition, retailers faced lawsuits this year for allegedly:

• Charging consumers more than the price advertised on store shelves (Target, Walmart).
• Falsely advertising free shipping sitewide (Rejuvenation).
• Increasing the price of the first item in a buy-one-get-one-free offer to recover the cost of the second, free item (JCPenney).
• Deceptively advertising “risk-free” returns (Pillow Cube).

So now that you know about these alleged practices, what can you do?

First, as always, read the fine print. If you get an email about a sitewide sale, for example, scroll down to the bottom to see if the company lists any exclusions so that you’re not wasting your time searching for an item that isn’t eligible for the advertised discount.

If you have your eyes set on a specific product this Black Friday or Cyber Monday, now is the time to see what the item costs so that you know the original price in a few days isn’t something the retailer pulled out of thin air.

Try not to let claims that an item is only available for a limited time rush you into making a purchase.

And if a cashier tries to charge you more than what the item was listed for on the shelf, kindly let them know about the inconsistency. They may have holiday shopping to do too.

Find more of our coverage on holiday shopping mishaps here.