Multiple pricing - price displays
Sometimes a business may have two different prices on display for the one item. A business that displays more than one price for the same good must either:
- sell the goods for the lowest displayed price, or
- withdraw the goods from sale until the price is corrected.
Related information: Displaying prices
Legislation: Australian Consumer Law section 47
What is a displayed price?
A displayed price is a price, or any price representation, that:
- is attached to or on the goods, anything connected or used with the goods, or anything used to display the goods
- is published online, in a catalogue, brochure, poster or flyer available to the public—when the deadline to buy at that price has not passed, the catalogue is not out of date, or the price applies only to the goods at a specific location or region, or
- appears to apply to the goods, including a partly obscured price.
What is not a displayed price?
A price will not be a displayed price when it is:
- entirely covered by another price
- a unit of measurement shown as another way of expressing the price
- not in Australian currency
- in a catalogue that is out of date, the deadline to buy at that price has passed, or a retraction has since been published (a retraction must be to a similar circulation or audience as the original advertisement).
Example: A business operates three different stores in Brisbane. One of the stores publishes an advertisement in their local newspaper listing a number of specials. The specials are only applicable to that store. The advertisement does not say that the specials are limited. Consequently some customers shopping at the other two stores purchase the products expecting to pay the special price.
The business must publish a retraction advertisement in the local newspaper, withdraw the items from sale or sell them at all stores at the lower price.