Sports Direct accused of not playing fair with discounting

Mike Ashley’s very own Sports Direct has been accused of fowl play when it comes to its discounting practice. The high street sporting goods store is said to mislead consumers into thinking they are getting a bargain price by exaggerating original retail prices, a practice off-price department store TK Maxx was previously charged with.

In Channel 4 Dispatches: Secrets of Sports Direct, which aired Tuesday night, investigator Harry Wallop and his team unearthed several of the practices behind the retailers marketing ploys which have helped Sports Direct become of the high street’s biggest success stories. With discounting singled out as ‘the most obvious tactic’ the retailer use to entice consumers, Sports Direct has been accused of inflating the original prices of their merchandise in order to convince shoppers that they were getting a better deal than they actually were.

Deborah Parry, consumer law consultant and expert at Hull University points out by printing out a higher original price and then crossing it out before the product has even hit the stores was not in line with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills guidelines. The published guidelines state that in order to display both the original higher price and the discounted price on a label, the item must have been for sale for the original price for at least 28 days, which the team found was not the case at Sports Direct.

“It is quite clear that their labelling is not following the terms of the guidance – they are not providing sufficient information,” said Parry. “[Stores are] supposed to spell out exactly what their offer means, how long it has been on display, whose previous price it is, and if it hasn’t been sold for very long, they should be saying how long it has been sold at that higher price. So consumers can look at the label, read them, make a proper decision and then act on it.”

Other misleading practices used by Sports Direct highlighted by Channel 4 included stores featuring ‘Closing Down Sale’ signs when in fact the store was relocating to another unit nearby and then offering the same prices in the new store, which can trick customers into thinking they are getting a special deal on the price of the item, when they are not. “If [consumers] are not aware that the prices are going to be maintained at the new store, then they may be making purchasing decisions that they regret afterwards,” added Parry.

Sports Direct maintains it does not aim to mislead any of its customers. “Our intention is to continue to bring our customers exceptional value for money and that they continue to get the most competitive prices,” said a company spokesperson. “We continue to monitor our promotions to help achieve this."