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Cdiscount: Does the price increase based on the number of views???

Anonymous user -  
brucine Posted messages 25337 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   -

Hello everyone,

Excuse my naivety... The question I'm asking is simple: does the number of views of an item on the marketplace affect its price??!! If so, is that legal??!!

Yesterday, I bought an item for 195 euros, and ten minutes later I canceled the order for personal reasons. Today, without clearing my history or anything else on my computer, which I had just set to sleep, I decided to check the item in question again... The price had risen to 217 euros... Paranoid as I am, I think that behind all this there's possibly an algorithm taking me for a cash cow knowing that I'm interested in the item... I turn off my computer and then restart it while turning on my VPN, I go back to the site and to the same item (not a similar one, the same one): the price has returned to 195 euros like the day before during my first visit...

Is this a coincidence, a bug...??!!

Would it be legal to fluctuate the price of an item based on an algorithm that calculates how many times you visit its page??!!

Thank you if you read everything, and thank you if you enlighten me...

3 answers

  1.
    T3chN0g3n Posted messages 79 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   1 217
     

    Hello,

    It has existed for a long time for the price of plane tickets for example ...

    I wouldn't be surprised at all if the trick is picked up by other sites!

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  2. Afrikarnak Posted messages 17653 Registration date   Status Contributor Last intervention   Ambassador 14 520
     

    Hello

    Known and seemingly legal nonsense (Prices are generally 'free') but quite vile. The aim is to push for a quick purchase, with the customer seeing the price go up. Fortunately, VPNs exist!

    Cheers

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  3. Anonymous user
     

    I have some doubts about the legality, since I feel like there were two different prices for the same product at the same time... Just by turning off and restarting the computer, the price had gone back down... In my opinion, if I had logged in from another computer, I would have seen two different prices at the same time... Whether it's a bug or something else, I'll refrain from saying, although obviously I have my own little idea...

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    1. Afrikarnak Posted messages 17653 Registration date   Status Contributor Last intervention   14 520
       

      Re:

      You can seek advice from the DDPP of Bordeaux (Head office of this prestigious company..). I have the same idea as you..

      List of departmental directorates for the protection of populations (DDPP) and departmental directorates for employment, work, social affairs and the protection of populations (DDETSPP) | economie.gouv.fr

      A+

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      1. brucine Posted messages 25337 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   4 194 > Afrikarnak Posted messages 17653 Registration date   Status Contributor Last intervention  
         

        Hello,

        "The trick" is known, but I have personally never observed it at Cdiscount, where my charming and very stingy neighbor, who only has a tablet, makes me spend my time on a large screen pre-selecting a number of items, always too expensive. This can last several days before she decides, but with no change even of €10 for expensive items that would make her scream immediately.

        The policy of "crossed-out prices," especially on their marketplaces, is, however, undeniable: if you look elsewhere for the same item and add the necessary salt and pepper (shipping costs...), the "price observed" pretty much everywhere is around the crossed-out price, not the "full price" which probably never existed.

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      2. Anonymous user > brucine Posted messages 25337 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention  
         

        The thing is that I placed an order and then cancelled it, maybe that's what changes everything, tomorrow I'll try again with two different computers.

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      3. brucine Posted messages 25337 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   4 194 > Anonymous user
         

        I don't know any more than that, I only observed that I had not been targeted by the phenomenon before placing the order, while limiting myself to consulting items often marked as favorites and repeatedly checked, including by logging in with my account credentials without which one cannot simulate the associated shipping costs.

        The item in question had sometimes been spotted by the said neighbor through another connection method (smartphone, tablet, but without a login account) and, as illustrated, if there had been a €10 difference for items that can sometimes be worth more than €500-600, it would have cost me 2 hours of drama.

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      4. Anonymous user > Afrikarnak Posted messages 17653 Registration date   Status Contributor Last intervention  
         

        I contacted the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control. The person drew a parallel with airline ticket prices (as mentioned earlier) and yield management but couldn't jump to any conclusions... I could feel they are overwhelmed; everything happening online and on social media is impossible to control...

        Nevertheless, he advised me to turn to the CNIL (because of cookies... geolocation...). I reached out to journalists to see if they are interested in digging into this... Tomorrow I'm going to try again to see if it was a bug or if it's a reality...

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