Your phone buzzes, it’s a notification… “-60%, today only”. Below it there’s the old price crossed out, and next to it a countdown that rushes you like notifications built to be irresistible. You think you’ve found one of those real Black Friday deals, and you buy.
Be honest, how many times has that happened to you?
Here’s how to tell whether a crossed-out price is honest. Along the way you’ll see why the EU Court of Justice ruled on bananas, and at the end there’s a 30-second check.
Real Black Friday deals or inflated ones, what makes the difference?
A discount is a comparison between two numbers, today’s price and the crossed-out one. The second one, though, is chosen by the seller.
It’s like measuring your height with a ruler that starts at ten centimetres. You look taller, yet you haven’t grown a single millimetre.
The most common trick is to cross out the recommended retail price, which maybe nobody has ever paid. On 30 October a Braun shaver on Amazon Italy cost €79.99 and showed a -45% worked out exactly like that. Right below it, though, there was a -37% on the lowest price of the last 30 days. Same product, same price, two different discounts.
Real Black Friday deals do exist, let’s be clear. There are just fewer of them than it seems.
In the UK, the consumer group Which? looked at 227 deals from Black Friday 2023, taken from eight big retailers. Well, 92% were the same price or cheaper at other times of the year.
And it isn’t just a British habit. In March 2026 the European Commission published a check carried out with the authorities of 25 countries on 314 online shops, during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. 30% referenced their discounts incorrectly, and 18% rushed shoppers with tricks like countdown timers.
Yet Europe has had a rule on that crossed-out price for years.
What is the 30-day price rule?
The rule is article 6a of the Price Indication Directive, added by the Omnibus Directive. When a shop announces a discount, it has to show the prior price. And that price is the lowest it applied in the 30 days before the discount.
It was meant to apply in every EU country from 28 May 2022, although not every country was on time. Italy, for example, only started applying it on 1 July 2023.
In practice the shop gets a short memory. It looks back one month, takes the lowest point and works out the discount from there. It’s the rule that should separate real Black Friday deals from made-up ones.
Ever wondered how far this rule reaches? In 2024 it reached bananas. Aldi had put them in its brochure at €1.29 a kilo, with a nice -23% off the old price of €1.69 (the case, in German). Too bad €1.29 was already their lowest price of the month. For the Court of Justice of the European Union the discount has to be worked out from there. And from €1.29 to €1.29, the discount is zero.
Put like that, it sounds like a system nobody can cheat. In reality it has a blind spot, and it all lies in that number… thirty.
Where doesn’t the 30-day rule reach?
The rule looks back 30 days, not one more. If a price goes up in mid-October and stays there, by late November it’s already “the lowest of the month”. The crossed-out price follows the rule, and yet compared with the summer you might be paying the same.
Do the maths on the calendar. In 2026 Black Friday falls on Friday 27 November, so for a discount starting that day the window opens on 28 October. A price rise decided before then stays outside it.
Under the 30-day rule, a price inflated in mid-October already counts as normal.
Careful, though. Inflating a price only to discount it is still an unfair commercial practice. In January 2023 Italy’s competition authority announced a €5.25 million fine for Yoox, partly because it had raised some prices before discounting them.
The problem is that checks come later. Meanwhile, in January 2026 the Italian consumer group Altroconsumo looked at 208 online shops, and 62% didn’t show the discount correctly.
So if you’re hunting for real Black Friday deals, the crossed-out price isn’t enough. You need the price history.
How do you spot real Black Friday deals in 30 seconds?
Online, a price isn’t a tag hanging on a shelf. It changes all the time, sometimes several times a day.
You might not know this, but back in 2013 Amazon.com was already making more than 2.5 million price changes a day. Walmart and Best Buy made about 50,000 each… in the whole of November.
At that pace, in the seven minutes it takes to read this article, Amazon would have changed over 12,000 prices.
That’s why you need the price chart, just like the one for a stock. If the line has been flat for months and drops in late November, that’s one of the real Black Friday deals. If it went up in October instead, you already have your answer.
It’s the same principle I used to work out what a MacBook is really worth compared with a Windows laptop. The number on the tag matters little, what matters is how much you really pay.
Here’s the check to do before you click “buy”. It’s four questions, and like the ones Akinator asks to guess your character, each one slices away a chunk of doubt.
- Look for the lowest price of the last 30 days. On Amazon Italy, for example, it appears right under the price. If it’s missing, be suspicious.
- Check the price history with Keepa, which is free and covers many Amazon stores.
- Compare the same model in other shops with a price comparison site.
- Be wary of huge percentages. On Black Friday 2025 Altroconsumo combed through almost 680,000 Amazon offers, and the real discounts were mostly between 15% and 35%.
And what if the check comes too late, because you’ve already bought?
What if the discount was fake?
If you bought online in the EU, you have 14 days to change your mind from delivery, without giving a reason. Usually, though, you pay for the return shipping.
Then you can report it to your national consumer authority. In Italy that’s the AGCM, whose online reporting form lists screenshots of the page and proof of purchase among the useful documents. Attach them, with the date. It won’t get your money back, but in Italy the fines go up to €10 million (Altroconsumo).
Don’t beat yourself up about it. As I explain in why failing is the secret to getting better, every mistake tells you what to change. Next time you’ll look at that crossed-out price with different eyes.
There are still a couple of doubts that everyone has.
Frequently asked questions about real Black Friday deals
Do real Black Friday deals exist?
Yes, but they’re rarer than they look. Which? checked the price history of 175 deals from Black Friday 2024, six months before and six months after. Every single one was cheaper or the same price at some point in that window. In Italy, on Black Friday 2025, Altroconsumo found real Amazon discounts mostly between 15% and 35%.
What is the lowest price of the last 30 days?
It’s the price a shop has to work out its discount from. That makes it the first number to check when you’re looking for real Black Friday deals. The EU Court of Justice confirmed it in 2024. If the discount starts from a higher price than that, the shop isn’t following the rule.
Can a shop raise its prices before Black Friday?
Yes, a shop can change its prices whenever it wants. If it raises them more than 30 days before, the new price passes the 30-day rule, as in the example above. Raising a price just to fake a discount, however, is still an unfair commercial practice, and it cost Yoox a €5.25 million fine.
When is Black Friday 2026?
Black Friday 2026 falls on Friday 27 November. It’s always the Friday after American Thanksgiving, which is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. The deals start earlier, though. In 2025, for example, Altroconsumo analysed Amazon offers that were already live on 20 November.
So, what about that -60% notification?
Let’s go back to the notification from the start. The countdown is still running, but now you know what to look at first, the lowest price of the last 30 days.
So before you buy, take thirty seconds and open Keepa. That way only real Black Friday deals end up in your basket.
And if you’re wondering what a purchase is really worth, beyond the discount, read which is worth more, a MacBook or a Windows laptop. It’s the same maths, done on a laptop you’ll use for years.
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Byeee.
