Rux’s store is currently selling illegal items in some countries

Just a heads up, the devs need to remove the whole reduced price/for sale signs in rux’s store. The devs do realise doing stuff like that is illegal in certain countries right? For example the UK. You cant say something is on sale when it was never offered at the full price for a set period of time. Fallout 76 went through massive legalities last year when it tried to sell stuff that were ‘on sale’ when they were never offered at the full price displayed.

https://www.lawdonut.co.uk/business/marketing-and-selling/consumer-protection/unfair-trading-trade-d...

Above is an article detailing unfair trading regulations in the uk. Bullet point 18 titled: “What are the rules on claiming that products are in a sale or on special offer?”

states that: “to claim that products are on sale, you should show the previous price and should have been selling at that price for a meaningful period of time”

due to Rux’s store having not offered these products at their full price ever, this breaches the unfair trading regulations act in the UK and is therefore an illegal activity.

Does anyone want to alert the devs of this breach?

TLEsquire
6 years ago
@RockScorpion384THAT is an excellent point. The range given was 100-1000. These were NOT mentioned as discount prices in the stream. That makes the sale look artificial and deceptive. I had forgotten that. I felt less comfortable with the legal angle when it was just a sale going against a "should" practice, but making prices that were supposed to be the normal prices "sale" prices looks bad.
Honestly, I didn't take the time to see what the prices were. I knew I didn't have enough to buy anything.

16 Replies

spIash_damage
6 years ago
So any vehicle company, clothing company, etc.... when they release products at a discounted price... cell phone companies are the king of this.... you’re saying everything sold to consumers must be launched at 100% full price/msrp and under no circumstance can it be discounted? Seems counter-intuitive to any market anywhere? Black Friday doesn’t exist (or something similar)? I can’t imagine NO new products during these types of events.
Not trying to sound sarcastic... just baffled, if this holds any weight.
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TLEsquire
6 years ago
The easiest solution to this is to simply take the sale off and charge everyone full price. I'm not sure how that helps us but it would avoid any appearance of impropriety I suppose. I would still hope their legal team looks at it deeply before decided to charge us more than they are currently offered for.
RockScorpion384
6 years ago
@spIash_damage
A product can be discounted but the product has to have been sold at the ‘was’ price, usually named the reference price, for a period of time before a promotional price can be established. Its to stop misleading sales for people who think theyre getting a good deal so buy he product as its ‘on sale’, when in actual fact the product was never sold for the full price and are therefore not saving anything.

If a product was released in black friday at $20 but said ‘was $40’ despite it not having been ever sold at $40, that is illegal in the Uk. Also other parts of the world, germany too iirc. Google fallout 76 illegal pricing or something, they were in the same situation this time last year.
RockScorpion384
6 years ago
@TLEsquire Or just remove the crossed out prices and have the ‘discounted’ price become the standard price.

Didnt the devs also state in their dev update last week that products would range from 100-1000 stars anyway so i dont know why the acorn outfit is priced at 1200 stars usually.

Also its kind of dodgy to offer skins for 1200 when you sell stars in packs of 1000 and 500 since it forces people to have to buy 1500 stars, a pack of 1000 and a pack of 500, if they want a legendary outfit. Make the discounted price the standard prices going forward and then it removes the legal issues and makes it less sleezy as a player as you can just buy a pack of 1000 stars
TLEsquire
6 years ago
@RockScorpion384THAT is an excellent point. The range given was 100-1000. These were NOT mentioned as discount prices in the stream. That makes the sale look artificial and deceptive. I had forgotten that. I felt less comfortable with the legal angle when it was just a sale going against a "should" practice, but making prices that were supposed to be the normal prices "sale" prices looks bad.
Honestly, I didn't take the time to see what the prices were. I knew I didn't have enough to buy anything.
ToastedSarnie
6 years ago
@spIash_damage I'm not an expert, but it's something to do with the wording & particularly avoiding "sale" in this situation. Companies would be able to say something like "Special release price of . . ." or "Available for a limited time at . . . "
RockScorpion384
6 years ago
@ToastedSarnie

Commonly known as an ‘introductory price’. The caveat, in order for you to be able to sell something at an introductory price, you have to clearly state this is an introductory price to alert the customer that this price is not the usual and state a time frame in which this introductory price will stand before reverting to full price.

Not only is there nowhere stated these are introductory prices and thus will be charged at full prices eventually, but also they have no intention to charge the ‘real’ prices as they have already stated that rux’s store will range from 100-1000 stars so the acorn skin will never be sold for 1200.

As @TLEsquire said the whole ‘discounted price’ aspect is deceiving players into thinking they are getting a good deal, when in reality that is the normal price and the discount is only there to make players feel theyre saving money and feel rushed to buy it while its at this reduced price.
Iron_Guard8
Legend
6 years ago
I noticed the sales price thing and was wondering why it was even there as they stated that the costumes would be 1000 stars so having that mark down thing did strike me as odd. If it is the standard price, they need to get rid of the implied discount.
ToastedSarnie
6 years ago
@RockScorpion384 Introductory price was the phrase I was looking for, thank you!
shurikeninja
6 years ago
@RockScorpion384 Are you sure? I always thought it was legal to do special opening offers. After all, Battle For Neighborville released at a cheaper price. But I guess that was marketed as Founders Edition.

Also side note, some people are already complaining about Rux' pricing. I think it's fine right now, but considering this is a discount sale, it's not fine. Legendary costumes should be $10, no more than that. I'll even go out on a limb and if Popcap listens to this plea I'll purchase Rainbow Stars - my first time spending money on micro-transactions.