Trading Standards
Retailers to change their ways without being told to
09 September 2008
Retailers to change their ways without being told to
Carphone Warehouse, Phones 4u and 3 are looking to stop promoting laptop deals with the word free. This is because Carphone Warehouse believes that the word free could be misleading and fall foul of Trading Standards regulations.
The word ‘free’ is believed to be used more often as everybody likes a bargain and it pulls in the public. However it can have more of a negative impact if a customer finds out more about the deal and finds that the terms and conditions mean it is not as free as initially stated.
However, DSG is continuing to use the term free in its laptop promotions in Currys stores. The deals with free laptops are when retailers and operators are looking to bundle a laptop together with a fixed or mobile broadband agreement – usually over two years, copying the subsidised ‘free phone’ format in the contract handset market.
One of the largest Trading Standards offices said it wasn’t currently investigating promotions around free laptops, so it seems that Carphone Warehouse, Phones4U and 3 are simply looking to tidy up their image.
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