Intermediate discounts canceled

The draft law of the Ministry of Development and Investment, introduced in Parliament, abolishes intermediate discounts, one of the trade marketing tools.

As stated in Article 6 of the bill, “interim periods of discounts are canceled and it is allowed to offer goods whose quantity exceeds 50% of the total available in each store.”

The following periods are defined as grace periods during which sale of goods or provision of services at reduced prices is allowed:

1. Winter sales, from the second Monday of January to the end of February,
2. Summer sales, from the second Monday of July to the end of August.

The offer of a certain quantity or a certain category of goods at reduced prices is carried out throughout the year. When placing offers (shares), the initial and new reduced price of goods must be clearly indicated at the points of sale of the offered products. Each price cut notice indicates the previous price applied by the seller for a specified period of time before the markdown occurred.

Previous price means the lowest price applied by the seller within a period of at least 30 days before the reduction is applied. When an item has been on the sales market for less than 30 days, the previous price is the lowest price applied by the trader within 10 days before the markdown was applied. If the price reduction continues, then the initial cost of the goods indicates the price without reduction until the first markdown is applied.

This does not apply to fresh and perishable agricultural foodstuffs which, by their nature or processing stage, may become unsalable within 30 days of harvest, production or processing.

As stated in the explanatory note: “Interim periods of discounts, according to the calculations of the trade movement and the estimates of the trading world, did not bring significant benefits to merchants and consumers. Accordingly, a restrictive ban on the supply of goods exceeding 50% of the total number of goods available in each store during sales has no economic logic, is an obstacle to competition, and unreasonably reduces the welfare of society.”

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