Misleading advertising?
Consumer protectors sue Lidl for controversial discount campaign
Lidl promised the “biggest price reduction in its history”, the Hamburg Consumer Center senses customer deception. She filed a lawsuit against the discounter.
The Hamburg Consumer Center has sued the discounter Lidl for a controversial discount. The offer advertising is contrary to competitive and misleading consumers, according to the application for the German Press Agency. With the injunction, consumer advocates want to achieve that Lidl can no longer advertise “500 products cheaper” with the slogan.
The district court Heilbronn is responsible for Lidl’s headquarters. The company did not want to comment on request. The lawsuit is not known.
Lidl had announced at the end of May to permanently reduce more than 500 individual items in the range. The food dealer campaigned with the “largest price reduction in its history”. Individual items would be reduced by up to 35 percent. However, Lidl left open which products should be cheaper.
Armin Valet, food expert from the Hamburg Consumer Center, criticizes this: “It is completely unclear which products have been permanently reduced in the price. Anyone who advertises and promise with such concrete numbers must also prove them.” However, there is no full list. The promoted price reductions were far from equalizing the enormous price increases in recent years. Customers are dependent on clear and reliable information.
Lidl advertising according to expert “unfortunate”
The advertising campaign had previously been criticized – also by trading experts like Stephan Rüschen. The professor of the Baden-Württemberg University in Heilbronn called Lidl advertising “unhappy”. He had counted in a branch and had only come to about 300 items. The savings effect is significantly lower than consumers when they hear the advertising message, said Rüschen.
Lidl rejected these allegations. The company said the number 500 referred to the number of individual items reduced in Germany. The campaign includes both nationwide and regional price adjustments. Consumer advocates complain that this information can only be found in a footnote for customers.
Customers save little
The SMHaggle price comparison has just identified a good 270 reduced products at Lidl. According to an evaluation of more than 640,000 cash bons, customers hardly save any significant significance due to the discount campaign.
Many items have only become a few cents cheaper at Lidl. The price reduction was between 0 and 10 percent in almost two thirds of the reduced products. The discount was only higher than 20 percent with every eighth article. Since the reduced products just make up part of the range, the average saving per purchase, according to Smhaggle, only amounts to around two percent.
The action still had an effect. After Lidl’s announcement, the other large retail chains followed up and adapted their prices.
Dpa
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Source: Stern
