Customers in the supermarket have noticed it for a long time: the prices of goods are rising. Everything is getting more and more expensive—whether meat or yoghurt, crisps or sweets, washing-up liquid or hand cream. What many people don’t notice about the products they are used to: there are cheat packs that contain less at the same price. The manufacturers simply reduce the filling quantity, a trick that has been practised for years. These are hidden price increases, often in the double-digit percentage range.
Customers can report cheating packages to the consumer centres. The consumer advice centre in Hamburg also selects one product every month as “Cheating Package of the Month”. It gives the name of the product and the name of the manufacturer. The cheat packs in the current list were 11 to 33 percent more expensive than before.
The trick—smaller pack, but old price—is not easy to spot. Hardly anyone knows the fill quantities and remembers the prices. An indication of cheat packs can be newly designed packaging or imprints such as “new formula” or “better quality”, for example, according to the consumer protectors. They criticise the lack of concrete legal regulations as to when something is a deceptive package. This can only be examined on a case-by-case basis.
More on this topic and a list of the cheat packs of the month can be found at:
https://www.vzhh.de/themen/mogelpackungen/weniger-drin-preis-gleich-die-neuesten-mogelpackungen
https://www.verbraucherzentrale.de/wissen/lebensmittel/kennzeichnung-und-inhaltsstoffe/mogelpackungen-tricks-mit-luft-und-doppeltem-boden-11707
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Auch landwirtschaftliche Produkte werden teurer, hier zahlt man aber meistens nach Gewicht. Foto: tünews INTERNATIONAL / Mostafa Elyasian.
