Promotional Price Fixing (Jessops, PC World, Park Cameras) Illegal?

Debt_Tired

Need to get this off my chest.

We all love a bargain, especially when times are hard.

Now, from Christmas Eve a number of retailers were offering a 20% discount on Panasonic photographic lenses. But what kind of a sale ends when you’re skint or preoccupied with Christmas. This sale ended on 2nd January!

Annoyed, I tweeted: @PanasonicUK So you decided to offer 20% off lenses! That’s absolutely fabulous. Only one slight problem, namely the offer was only from 24th December until 2nd January, when everyone was either too busy or too skint! Not much of a January sale, was it Panasonic? #ExtendTheSale.

I assumed that it was arranged through Panasonic, because the offer was available from several different retailers. Same dates and same 20% off the same products. But according to Panasonic, who replied to my enquiry:

“I can confirm that this offer was run exclusively by Jessops, and was not in association with Panasonic. Which means that we unfortunately have no control over how long it lasts.”

That’s interesting, because the same “20% off Panasonic Lenses” was also offered from Curry’s and PC World, Wex Photo & Video, Park Cameras, Clifton Cameras, the aforementioned Jessops and a few other retailers I suspect. All independent retailers, all deciding to offer the exact same discount, over the same week!

Am I bitter? Damn right! Buying a new lens isn’t something you do every day, and money is tight, especially at Christmas. And it’s not as if you can pick and choose. If you buy a certain camera, your stuck with that particular lens mount - with limited or no option other than to buy from a single manufacturer.

Question is: was this a case of price fixing? Were retailers colluding with each other - to offer the same discount or special offer over the same period? Is this illegal?

BoGoF

No, no and no again.

powerful_Rogue

Debt_Tired wrote: »

Need to get this off my chest.

We all love a bargain, especially when times are hard.

Now, from Christmas Eve a number of retailers were offering a 20% discount on Panasonic photographic lenses. But what kind of a sale ends when you’re skint or preoccupied with Christmas. This sale ended on 2nd January!

Annoyed, I tweeted: @PanasonicUK So you decided to offer 20% off lenses! That’s absolutely fabulous. Only one slight problem, namely the offer was only from 24th December until 2nd January, when everyone was either too busy or too skint! Not much of a January sale, was it Panasonic? #ExtendTheSale.

I assumed that it was arranged through Panasonic, because the offer was available from several different retailers. Same dates and same 20% off the same products. But according to Panasonic, who replied to my enquiry:

“I can confirm that this offer was run exclusively by Jessops, and was not in association with Panasonic. Which means that we unfortunately have no control over how long it lasts.”

That’s interesting, because the same “20% off Panasonic Lenses” was also offered from Curry’s and PC World, Wex Photo & Video, Park Cameras, Clifton Cameras, the aforementioned Jessops and a few other retailers I suspect. All independent retailers, all deciding to offer the exact same discount, over the same week!

Am I bitter? Damn right! Buying a new lens isn’t something you do every day, and money is tight, especially at Christmas. And it’s not as if you can pick and choose. If you buy a certain camera, your stuck with that particular lens mount - with limited or no option other than to buy from a single manufacturer.

Question is: was this a case of price fixing? Were retailers colluding with each other - to offer the same discount or special offer over the same period? Is this illegal?

Totally legal. No different to any other kind of product that if one retailer reduces the price, the rest do as well.

Aylesbury_Duck

I don't understand your reasoning. Don't you think that perhaps one reason why the discount was offered in that period was precisely because people are "too busy or too skint" and that a discount might generate sales when otherwise they'd struggle? You appear to have a misplaced sense of entitlement, that retailers should offer discounts on products that you want at a time that is convenient to you. If you were too skint or too preoccupied with Christmas to take advantage of the offer, that's your problem, not the retailer's.

"#ExtendTheSale"......give me strength.

DoaM

I remember when the #JanuarySales ( ) used to start in January!

SuperHan

The whole point of "January" sales is to get people to spend when they otherwise wouldn't have done.


The industry as a whole has seen these sales shift to Boxing Day sales rather than January sales though, so I would expect most offers to be between 26th and 1st.


And it's not collusion - there's a price promise culture at the moment. One retailer drops their prices and all the others reactively match it as they don't want their customers going elsewhere. John Lewis for one advertises which products on its website it has done this with.


I sale shopped on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and a couple of other days between then and New Year. I was as "preoccupied with Christmas" as the next person, so I can't see any reason why you couldn't have done the same...


This should also be in the Praise, Vent and Warnings Board. Not a consumer rights issue.

Gavin83

Did they even advertise it as a January sale?

Anyway nothing illegal has happened. Be quicker next time.

Cetshwayo

You snooze, you lose!

bris

24th to the 2nd of January is when hundreds of millions are spent during the sales so people aren't to skink. This is when the discounts attract attention. One retailer drops prices the others have to either do it or lose out, retailers don't want to lose out.


But price fixing is rife yes, manufactures and designers protect their brands by telling retailers what to sell for to keep it consistent.


Sure retailers can do what they want but they will lose their accounts if they don't play ball.

davidmcn

Debt_Tired wrote: »

was this a case of price fixing? Were retailers colluding with each other? Is this illegal?

It's illegal if that's what they were doing, but you haven't produced any evidence that they were. There's nothing unlawful about them monitoring and matching their competitors' prices.

You don't even need humans involved to do that these days - look at the sellers on Amazon who have programmed their systems to sell at 5p less than their competitors.

(also, it's not illegal for Panasonic to lie to you about whatever arrangements they have with their suppliers...)

DCFC79

I also don't see the issue here, the fact it was on from 24th Dec to 2 Jan isn't an issue, not everyone will be skint or preoccupied with Christmas over that period. Id move onto something else.


You say "money is tight, especially at Christmas" but if you budget accordingly it wont be tight would it.


OP have you read up on what price fixing is ?