Details on the EU Omnibus Pricing directive and how we calculate lowest price information

What is the EU Omnibus Pricing directive about?

The Omnibus Directive, which is part of the EU’s legislative package, introduces amendments to four EU directives:

1. Consumer Rights Directive (2011/83/EU)

2. Price Indication Directive (98/6/EU)

3. Unfair Contract Terms Directive (93/13/EEC)

4. Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (2005/29/EC)

In a nutshell, the aim of these amendments is to harmonize the application of contract rules in the EU, improve consumer protection measures, apply more consistent sanctions for infringements of consumer rights, and to increase transparency in online marketplaces.

Legal interpretation of article 6a

The requirements of the new Article 6a of the PID are the following:

1. Any announcement of a price reduction shall indicate the prior price applied by the trader for a determined period of time prior to the application of the price reduction.

2. The prior price means the lowest price applied by the trader during a period of time not shorter than 30 days prior to the application of the price reduction.

3. Member States may provide for different rules for goods that are liable to deteriorate or expire rapidly.

4. Where the product has been on the market for less than 30 days, Member States may also provide for a shorter period of time than the period specified in paragraph 2.

5. Member States may provide that, when the price reduction is progressively increased, the prior price is the price without the price reduction before the first application of the price reduction.

For more details please check out the official EU document Guidance on the interpretation and application of Article 6a of Directive 98/6/EC

How Omnibus Pricing aims to assure compliance with the directive

To assist sellers in e-commerce, our app aims to solve two main parts of the directive:

1. Displaying the lowest price information on the storefront

2. Assuring that indicated discounts are in line with the directive

We do this by collecting price information on a daily basis in order to build a price history list for each product in the store. Based on the collected history we

1. calculate and save lowest price information and

2. compare the lowest price information to the products' comparison prices to indicate whether or not the price reduction indicated on the storefront is compliant with the directive

How the lowest price information is calculated in Omnibus pricing

For a detailed overview of the calculations, please refer to the article How the lowest price information is calculated in Sniffie: Omnibus pricing