Pay extra without a card. Stores avoid discount rules

A kilo of carrots for 25 or 12 crowns; and white grapes for 60 or 27 CZK? Everyone can choose. But nothing is free. In this case, the payment is the personal data of interested parties.

They used to collect a lot of points for their purchases, which they could later turn into rewards. Today, however, traders have switched to advantages in advance in the form of significantly lower prices within the aforementioned program. Practically everyone offers it, but it is probably the most widespread in Tesko.

The customer often has to concentrate in order to distinguish between the flood of colorful price tags announcing the discount, if the offer is for him, if he does not have a club card. In some types of stores, for example in wholesale Makro, without a loyalty card, the customer will not buy at all.

“It is in the interest of every merchant to monitor customers’ purchases as much as possible, to have direct contact with them, to know as much as possible about them and to be able to work with them within their databases. Thanks to this, they will save on sales and logistics, reduce marketing costs and increase profitability,” marketing expert Robert Le Veneur told Novinka.

A large increase in offers for members of loyalty clubs has also been recorded in Great Britain in recent years.

In connection with this, suspicions began to arise that the regular prices of products for customers without a loyalty card may be artificially increased. So far, however, it has only remained a matter of suspicion, the local antimonopoly office is still investigating.

For domestic supermarkets, the double price level can be a way to circumvent compliance with the Consumer Protection Act.

The same rules do not apply to double prices as to discounts, even if a person in the store often does not even distinguish it, because the signs look similar.

“The seller does not have to state the lowest price for the last 30 days, if he will present the price for members of the loyalty program as the second price level, not as information about the discount,” explained František Kotrba, spokesman for the Czech Trade Inspection.

Thanks to this, the supermarket can adjust prices to a much less limited extent.

“The loyalty application today offers information about discounts, but also finding the nearest store and its busyness, creating and sharing shopping lists or purchase history, including an electronic receipt,” explained the benefits of the programs, ESET cyber security specialist Vladimíra Žáčková.

In order for the customer to be able to register for the loyalty program, he must typically provide the merchant with his e-mail address, telephone number, date of birth and residential address.

But it doesn’t end there. “The chains collect information about the purchased products, the total amount spent, the frequency of purchases, the type of payment means used, information about the payment card, the number of clicks and scrolling on the page, but also information about the unique IP address, browser type and version of the user’s operating system and device “, specified Žáčková.

“From this information, some applications can estimate how many household members you are shopping for, whether you have children and how old they are,” she added.

Regarding the security of customer data, according to experts, their transfer to supermarkets does not pose a greater threat. However, the customer should always read in the terms of service what data the application collects, what company manages it and with whom it shares it.

“It is essential that chains comply with regulations and respect consumer rights. This aspect is under close scrutiny and we are ready to discuss possible amendments to the legislation if it turns out that the rules are not sufficient,” Deputy Chairman of the Agriculture Committee of the Chamber of Deputies Karel Smetana (KDU-ČSL) told Novinkám.

Some supermarkets, such as Lidl, pass on customer data to, for example, the social network Facebook.

However, according to ANECT consultant Petr Mojžíš, this practice should not be standard.

“Legally, from the point of view of the General Regulation on the Protection of Personal Data, i.e. GDPR, it should be at least problematic. Companies usually base such processing of personal data on the legal basis of the so-called legitimate interest, thus practically saying that it is for the good of the customers. This is partially defensible, but when the provision about the advertising purposes of third parties appears there, the goodness begins to disappear quickly. Everyone has the opportunity to object to such an action,” Mojžíš explained.

“But Facebook itself has an abundance of ways to so-called touch you,” he added.