Sales & Sale Prices

Guidance on advertising sales prices is published by the Chartered Trading Standards Institute and is available here. For matters of legal interpretation, advice should be sought from local trading standards departments.

Ads may claim as “10% off”, “at half-price”, “great savings”, “sale reductions/bargains” etc. only where previous higher prices have applied for at least 28 consecutive days over the past 6 months in the shop/s where the sales are taking place. The previous higher price should have applied for at least 50% of the 6 month period prior to the offer. Radiocentre clearance will be given on this condition.

Where sales are not taking place in all of the advertiser’s stores, the tag “at participating stores only” will be needed.

Where previous higher prices have not applied for the 28-day period, the tag “higher prices have applied from x (date) to y (date)” will be needed.

Advertisers of sales may claim “with up to 75% off/discount” only if at least 10% of the advertised stock is being sold at 75% cheaper prices. Radiocentre clearance will be given on this condition.

If a price saving is quoted with a specific price, scripts must quote the previous higher price, e.g. “now only £9.99, was £11.99”. Alternatively, the claim “now only £9.99, save £2” is acceptable.

A claim such as “with up to 33% off … prices now start from just £2999” is unacceptable as the previous higher price/s is not easily calculable by consumers. The script must either quote the previous higher/non-sale price or state the exact amount saved by consumers.

A price claim such as “X is just £9.99” is not regarded as a price reduction/sales claim; however, “X is now just £9.99” does imply a saving.

Ads should not state or suggest that an offer is time-limited if a decision to extend the sale has already been made. Sales may only be extended for reasons outside of the retailers’ control.