Around the Net
Groupon On This Ice In UK
- GigaOm, Friday, March 16, 2012 12:16 PM
So much for smooth international expansion. The Office of Fair Trading -- Britain’s equivalent of the Federal Trade Commission -- says that Groupon has breached consumer regulations on a wide range of occasions, and has been given a three month deadline to fix its wrongdoing, or face legal action.
“Over the last year, the U.K. arm of Groupon has been the subject of a record number of complaints about the way it advertises deals to users, makes claims about products on sale and treats users,” according to GigaOm. “In a statement from the OFT on Friday, the watchdog said: “The investigation found widespread examples of Groupon’s practices which in the OFT’s view breached consumer protection regulations.
”The OFT has specific concerns over practices involving reference pricing, advertising, refunds, unfair terms, and the diligence of its interactions with merchants.” The long list of requirements relates to a number of different areas where Groupon has been accused of misleading customers and partners, including reference prices -- or adverts that compare an original reference price against a sale price.
