Belgian rules related to announcements of price reductions have been repealed

Pursuant to a judgment of July 2014 of the European Court of Justice, where the Court has considered Belgian law violated European rules, the Belgian Parliament has voted the abolition of constricting rules of the Belgian Economic Code related to price réductions.

Until now, the undertaking which announced price reductions had to respect certain formal obligations: it had to inform consumers about the reference price; said price had to be the lowest price used by the undertaking for a whole month preceding the first day of effective price reduction; the price reduction had to be offered at least for a day and for a month at the most.

Those rules are also repealed during the seasonal sales.

Therefore, the undertaking announcing price reductions does not have to comply any longer with these formal rules.

However, the undertaking still needs to ensure the communication of loyal advertising, without misleading the consumers.

If you wish to have more information about this subject, do not hesitate to contact M. Didier Chaval (didier.chaval@cairnlegal.be).

Best regards,

The Cairn Legal team

Partners

Frédéric de Patoul | Frank Weinand | Didier Chaval | Bernard Vandenkerckhove | Carl Vander Espt | Arnaud Massart | Guillaume Rue | Jonas Deryckere

Associates

Dorothée Cardon de Lichtbuer | Virginie Schoonheyt | Bojana Salovic | Stoffel Werbrouck