Supermarkets using "misleading tricks" to make their products seem cheaper 

Supermarkets like Aldi, Dirk, and Jumbo use "misleading tricks" to make their customers believe that products have become permanently cheaper. The Consumentenbond, the Consumers Association in English, said this after an inventory of hundreds of price reductions on the websites and in supermarket branches.

According to the advocacy group, most reports of price reductions were "rumbling." On some occasions, the supermarket said the price had gone down when that wasn't the case, or the price reduction had actually happened months ago. According to the Consumentenbond, supermarkets are not allowed to advertise a reduction like this for longer than 30 days.

It also happened that stores would increase the price of products for a short time "so they could then show off a reduction." For example, the Association found margarine at Dirk, which was marked 'reduced in price.' "But first Dirk gradually increased the price of the product by 0.30 euros, and then reduced it by 0.06 euros."

The supermarkets have told the Consumentenbond that they did not first deliberately increase their prices and then advertise a price reduction. They also indicated to the organization that shelf cards sometimes remained hanging for too long due to human error.

According to the association, they have promised to mention the date of the price reduction from now on and not to advertise it for more than 30 days.

Earlier this week, it was announced that two major supermarket chains in Australia had been taken to court for precisely the same practices that the Consumentenbond had highlighted.

The Australian competition watchdog ACCC discovered that the companies had briefly increased the prices of popular items before lowering them to the same or a slightly higher price than the original. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also responded. "If this turns out to be true, it is completely unacceptable. Customers do not deserve to be fooled by the supermarkets."

A spokesperson for the Netherlands Authority for Consumers & Markets (ACM) cannot comment on possible investigations in the Netherlands. The supervisory authority does speak regularly with the Consumentenbond.

"This could then be a topic of discussion," she said. The ACM would then be particularly interested in whether these are merely incidents or whether there is something structurally wrong. According to her, the latter would be a condition that would require the ACM to delve further into the matter.