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This article is part of ‘Guidelines on the protection of the online consumer’. View full guideline

Rules on the use of limited-availability notifications

Do you use notifications such as: “This offer is valid for a limited time” or “Only a few items left”? Or perhaps you use other notifications in which you create a sense of scarcity among consumers? You can only do so if such notifications are true. Otherwise you mislead consumers into making a purchase. And that is not allowed.

Businesses like to create a sense of urgency among consumers when offering a special deal, discount or offer. They do so by emphasizing the limited time or stock. When seeing such notifications, consumers often make decisions sooner and they are more likely to make a purchase. There are different types of such online notifications, such as:

  • Scarcity notifications: These are notifications about the extent to which products are still available, for example ‘Limited stock’ or showing for each product how many items are still available. Or if a product is almost sold out: “Attention, only 3 items left!” or “Almost sold out!”.
  • Urgency notifications: These are notifications that indicate how much time there is left to take advantage of the offer. Think of countdown timers that count down in seconds. This happens in online auctions, for example. It can create a strong urge among consumers to make a purchase immediately. The use of minutes, hours, days or even weeks can engender a similar sense of urgency, especially with larger or more complex purchases such as laptops or data plans.
  • Bait & Switch technique: These are notifications offering baits. Online stores sometimes advertise deals for a product they only have a limited number of or even none at all. As a result, consumers are lured to the online store and are then pushed to purchase something else.

All these types of notifications can benefit consumers, but they need to be true. Is the notification not based on actual availability? Or is a notification not sufficiently specific and does it give a false impression of actual availability? If so, persuasion can turn into deception. And that is not allowed. That is why you must comply with certain rules if you use notifications about availability.

The same goes for baits. If a company knows that it only has a limited number of items of a certain product or even none at all for a certain price, or can that company reasonably suspect that? If so, luring consumers using such notifications is considered a misleading practice.

What is required and what is not allowed?

  • Use limited-availability notifications only if they are actually true. Make sure that your notifications present a clear picture of actual availability. Make also clear if the last available items are through your website, or, for example, if they are truly the last available rooms of that hotel. Are there still rooms available through another site? If so, add, for example, “Last 3 available rooms on this website”.

  • Do you wish to show how long an offer lasts? For example, by using a countdown timer counting down until the end of the offer? If so, ensure that the remaining time that is shown is true.

  • Do not use a countdown timer if the deal continues to be offered after the timer has counted down to zero. It would give the false impression that the deal is only available for the time remaining on the timer. That is a misleading practice.

  • Do not continuously claim that a product is ‘on sale’. If the deal is the permanent price, that claim would give a false impression about the availability of the deal for that price. That is a misleading practice.

  • Do not say things that are untrue about availability. For example, you cannot say that there are only 5 items left, when this is not the case.

  • Do not present incomplete information in availability notifications. For example, you cannot say there are only 5 hotel rooms left, when that availability does not concern the dates for which the consumers are searching or if there are still rooms available on another site for those dates.

  • Never falsely claim that a product is available for a very limited time only or that it will be available for a very limited time under special conditions only, if this is not true. Consumers must have the opportunity and have sufficient time to make a well-informed decision. Do not pressure consumers into taking a decision quickly.

Tips

  • You may extend a special offer, for example because the product is not sold out yet when the offer period expires. In that case, you may keep the product on sale, but make sure that this will not become a habit or a permanent situation. After all, that would defeat the idea of a special offer.

Examples

Example: The not-so-temporary offer

An online store has a large supply of a particular product as it can repeatedly reorder it at a similar price, but it acts as if it is offering these products at a temporarily reduced price. In reality, that price is not at all temporary: the product has been available at that same price for a long time. Consumers are misled about the price advantage. That is not allowed.

Example: False availability information

A business that sells concert and event tickets online advertises an artist’s concert as follows: “Order from us the last remaining tickets for the sold-out concert for 80 euros.”

However, the concert is not sold out. Tickets are still on sale through the ‘official sales outlets’ at 60 euros each. The business is misleading consumers about one of the main features of the product, which is its availability. It gives the impression that the concert is sold out, and that consumers can order the last few tickets through it, whereas, in reality, the concert is not sold out. That is not allowed.

Example: Almost sold out!

A fashion store sells online. The store has hired a firm to optimize the website and boost sales. The firm has built an algorithm that sends out the following notification for all products when they are viewed more than 200 times a day and for longer than 20 seconds but are sold less than five times: “Almost sold out!”.

The firm’s A/B tests show that this boosts sales of those products. However, the notification is not based on actual availability. That is a misleading practice and is therefore not allowed.

Example: Only three rooms left!

A hotel comparison and booking website offers hotel rooms in various hotels. When only a few rooms are left, the company posts a notification stating how many rooms remain available: “Only three rooms left! Book quickly”.

 

In reality, the notification only concerns the availability of the rooms on this website. The company does not say that. It seems as if these are the last three rooms of that type. However, there may well be more such rooms available on other websites. The price comparison website cannot falsely claim that only a few rooms are left. This description is incomplete and therefore misleading. The comparison site thus misleads consumers about the availability of its offerings. That is not allowed.

The Dutch Advertising Code Committee clarifies that a company is allowed to issue complete and factually correct notifications about availability (in Dutch). This means that it can say “Only three rooms left on this website” or: “x number of people have looked at this hotel for the same dates”, if this is true.

Relevant regulations

 

Explanation of regulations

Enforcement

Following an intervention of ACM, together with other European consumer authorities, an online booking platform will apply changes to its website. Clear and correct information about the availability of rooms on certain dates must be given. And no suggestions of alleged scarcity can be made.