Combined offers

The provisions of the Consumer Protection Act concerning combined offer marketing apply to all offer marketing in which you are offered an certain benefit. The essential about combined offers is that you need to buy something in order to get the benefit.

Combined offers are usually conditional purchase promotions or package offers:

• Package offer means an offer in which the company sells you similar products at a common price. For example, “you get gloves and a belt for a total price of EUR 80” is a combined offer.
• Conditional purchase promotion is a free product or service that you receive when you buy the main product. For example, “a microwave oven free of charge for all kitchen cabinet buyers” and “a foot massage free of charge for all back massage buyers” are giveaways. The giveaways are cheaper than the main product.
• Bulk discount is an offer in which the company sells several of the same products at a lower total price. For example, “three candy bars at the price of one” is a bulk discount
• Special offer is an offer with a lower than usual campaign price.

 

The restrictions, conditions and duration of the offer must be clearly stated

The company must indicate in its marketing the terms and restrictions of the offer. Since the offer is valid for a limited time, the company must explain when the offer starts and when it ends.

If only a limited quantity of the product is sold to each customer, the seller must state that in their marketing. Additionally, the seller must indicate if you need to purchase a certain number of products to obtain a benefit.

If there are so few special offer products that they are likely to run out during the offer, the company must indicate the number of units of the products. This allows you to assess the availability of the offer.

If the advertised free item are not available, you can demand an item from the seller. You do not have to accept another product to replace the advertised giveaway.

Content and value of the offer

When a company markets combined offers, it must indicate in its advertisement what kind of products are included in the offer. The value of the combined offer is the difference between the total price of the product package and the individual prices of the products included in the package.

In the combined offer, the seller must specify not only the total price of the package, but also the price of each part as purchased separately. If the product is not separately available for purchase, the company must indicate the calculated price of the product. If the price of the goods is less than EUR 10 as purchased separately, the seller does not need to indicate its value.

The value of an item described as free is expressed in the same way as with combined offers.

Marketing targeted for children and adolescents

Children are unable to assess the value of free item in the same way as adults.

A giveaway with a low monetary value can be more attractive to a child than the main product itself, making it easy to influence the purchase decision with the help of a giveaway. Therefore, in the marketing of products that interest children, the company must ensure that it does not market the giveaway as the main product.

If the giveaway was defective

The seller is responsible for defects in the goods. If the giveaway was defective, you can claim compensation from the vendor even if the giveaway is not part of its usual range of products.