Reference prices and fake sales: how to spot them

Shops know that the word «sale» makes us buy faster and think less. Artificial discounts are therefore one of the oldest tricks in the book: the price is quietly raised, then brought «down» with great fanfare, and suddenly a perfectly ordinary price looks like a bargain you have to grab before midnight.

Fortunately, the rules are on your side. The reference price rule sets concrete requirements for what a shop may call a sale, and with a few simple habits you can spot most fake offers long before anything reaches your basket. Here is what you need to know.

What does the reference price rule say?

The reference price rule, known in Norwegian as førpris, says that when a shop advertises a sale or a price reduction, the reference price must be the lowest price the item has been sold for in the 30 days before the sale started. The rule is the Norwegian implementation of common EU rules on price marketing, and it is enforced by Forbrukertilsynet, the Norwegian Consumer Authority.

In practice this means that a shop cannot raise the price the week before a sale and use that inflated figure as its reference. If the jumper has cost 599 kroner for most of the past month, then 599 kroner is the lawful reference price, even if the shop managed to move it to 899 a few days before the campaign. «Sale: 599 (was 899)» is then misleading marketing, because in reality you are saving nothing at all.

Note that the rule applies when the shop actively advertises a price reduction, with strikethroughs, percentages or words such as «sale», «offer» and «was/now». A shop is still free to move its prices up and down, as long as it does not present an ordinary price as a discount. There are also some practical exceptions, among them goods that spoil quickly and gradual reductions within one continuous campaign, but the main rule about the lowest price over the past 30 days is what applies in almost every case you meet as a consumer.

Classic tricks worth recognising

The most common price tricks are artificially raised prices ahead of the big sales days, the recommended retail price used as a reference, and sales that never end. What they have in common is that they make the discount look bigger than it is, and every one of them can be exposed with a little price history.

• Price creep before Black Friday. The version everyone knows: the price climbs through October and November, so that «40% off» is in practice a few per cent below the normal price, or no discount at all.
• The recommended retail price as a reference. The recommended price is the manufacturer's suggestion, not what the item actually sells for. If nobody in the market charges the recommended price, «50% below recommended» is a figure without content. Always compare with real shop prices.
• The eternal sale. If an item has been «on sale» for months, the sale price is the real price. The strikethrough is then not a discount, but a device for creating pressure to buy.
• Percentage fog. A banner shouting «70%» often means that a handful of items carry a big discount while the rest of the range sits close to the normal price. Check the specific item you want, not the poster.

How to check price history

The surest way to expose a fake sale is to look at what the item has actually cost over time. Price history tools and price comparison services show the development as a graph, so one glance tells you whether the offer is below the normal level, or just the normal level in new wrapping.

A few concrete habits that cost little and reveal a lot:

• Look the item up in a price comparison service with a history graph before you buy, especially for electronics and white goods.
• If you decide on something well in advance, note the price (or take a screenshot with the date) a few weeks before the sale. Then you have your own record.
• Check the price at several shops. An offer that sits above the competitors' ordinary price is not an offer.
• If you shop via Sparebørsen, the product pages show 30 day price insight, exactly the window the reference price rule is about, so you can see whether today's price really is low.

Once you have the graph in front of you, reading it is easy. Look for two patterns: a price peak just before the sale started, the classic sign of an artificial increase, and where today's price sits relative to the level the item has hovered around over the past few months. A genuine offer sits clearly below the normal range, not just below last week's peak.

Black Friday: strategy instead of impulse

The best Black Friday strategy is to decide in advance: make a list of what you actually need, note the normal prices in good time, and buy only when the sale price is genuinely lower. Anything that was not on the list is money saved, not a bargain you missed.

Countdown clocks, «only 3 left» labels and flashing banners are designed to switch off second thoughts. The antidote is dull but effective: compare against the price history, not against the shop's own reference price. Remember too that the Norwegian right of withdrawal and the right to complain apply as normal on Black Friday: a purchase you regret can as a rule be returned.

Two practical tips for the shopping itself: gather the offers in one place instead of hopping between ten shops, where an overview such as our offers page makes the job easier, and think through how you pay. The choice between invoice and card has both cost and rights implications, which we have written more about in Klarna, invoice or card: what pays off?

When in the year are things actually cheapest?

The genuinely good prices follow the seasons, not the campaign posters. The January sales and the changes of season are when shops really have to clear their stock, and the discounts are then more often real than during the big marketing driven sales days.

• The January sales: clothes, shoes and interiors are cleared out after the Christmas trade. Here you often find real reductions on last year's collections.
• End of season: winter jackets and skis are cheapest in spring, garden furniture and barbecues in late summer, bicycles towards autumn. Buy out of step with the season.
• Model changes: electronics tend to fall in price when a new generation launches. Last year's model is often almost as good, at a noticeably lower price.
• The Black Friday period: can give good prices on certain goods, electronics in particular, but this is precisely where false reference prices are most common, so check the history extra carefully.

The bigger picture is that patience is the most underrated saving technique. Almost everything you are considering buying goes on a genuine sale at some point during the year; the only question is when. If you can plan your purchases around the seasons rather than the campaign calendar, you rarely need to wonder whether the discount is real.

How to complain to Forbrukertilsynet

If you believe a shop is breaking the reference price rule, you can report it to Forbrukertilsynet through the tip function on their website. The authority supervises price marketing and can require unlawful marketing to stop, and in serious cases impose financial penalties.

Good tips are documented tips. Take screenshots showing the item, the price and the date, ideally both before and during the sale, and note the link to the product page. Be aware that a tip to Forbrukertilsynet does not give you money back for a purchase you have already made; it is a tool for stopping misleading marketing. But every documented complaint makes fake sales a little harder to run, and that benefits every shopper.

Fake sales live off the fact that we trust strikethroughs and percentages blindly. With the 30 day rule in mind, a quick look at the price history and a little patience on the big sales days, you are better equipped than most. More concrete steps for getting more out of online shopping can be found in the guide How to save money on online shopping in 2026.