Pingo Doce has filed a complaint with the Direção-Geral do Consumidor (DGC) and the Advertising Self-Regulatory Institute over a Lidl advertising campaign that compares prices between supermarkets, which he says is misleading.
“The campaign is misleading and through it Lidl aims to demonstrate not only that it is the cheapest chain on the market, but that it costs at least 10% more. This is not true and Pingo Doce was forced to intervene because, on the other hand, the ARP, on the other hand, the DGC, to analyze the compliance of this campaign with the law, namely the law governing comparative advertising,” states Pingo Doce’s “newsletter”. , sent to clients.
According to group company Jerónimo Martins, ARP and the DGC concluded that “the campaign is misleading and likely to mislead the consumer,” determining that it should be stopped immediately.
The campaign in question is Lidl’s advertising campaign, starting in February, which compares prices across different retail spaces and claims it is the cheapest on the market.
The analysis, supported by Marktest, uses a random weekly basket of 25 products, which Pingo Doce says are chosen “so that in each basket Lidl prices are 10% cheaper than competitors.”
The same note states that the baskets are not representative and that they were chosen to show “an estimated global price 10% lower than competitors, i.e. manipulated.”
Pingo Dose also stated that this analysis contains errors regarding the prices that the supermarket actually charges, as well as the use of “incomparable” products or products that Pingo Dose does not sell.
“Because Pingo Doce, a Portuguese brand with more than 40 years of history that has always been guided by its behavior by conveying to its customers and the market correct, transparent and loyal information about the products and services it sells, is forced, given Lidl’s gross profit and unacceptable respect, to make this information public in defense of his good name and truth in front of his clients and the Portuguese in general,” he concluded.
Lusa has contacted Lidl and is awaiting a response.