Honest Discounts
“40% off” will be checked against what HAULS actually observes, not the price printed on the label.
Illustrative example
Same price it’s always been. New sticker.
The printed MRP is ₹2,000, a number this product has never actually sold for. HAULS is designed to check today’s price against what it has observed recently instead.
Listed MRP ₹2,000, current price ₹1,200, shown as “40% OFF.” HAULS’ observed history: ₹1,250, ₹1,220, ₹1,200, ₹1,180, ₹1,250. Today’s price is only about 4% below the most recent price it’s actually sold at.
Why this matters
A big percentage means nothing if the reference number is fiction.
The EU now requires online stores to show a product’s lowest price from the past 30 days next to any discount claim, so an inflated reference number can’t manufacture a bigger-looking percentage.EU law
US rules require a struck-through "was" price to be one the item was genuinely sold at for a real stretch of time, not a number invented to make today’s price look like a bargain.FTC
India’s consumer authority has fined e-commerce platforms over pricing that shrinks the advertised discount, including a ₹2 lakh fine against FirstCry in September 2025 for adding GST at checkout on prices shown as tax-inclusive (drip pricing).CCPA, 2025
Research on reference-price anchoring finds shoppers judge a deal partly by the crossed-out price next to it. Inflate that number and the deal feels bigger even when the real price never moved.Study
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