Price on printed pack of product sold in Poland differs from barcode & shelf price. System.

What is the law regarding this:

A certain brand of well-known yogurt has 400g packs where the manufacturer/producer has printed 2.89 zł as the price.

But the shop's price check machine (and presumably the checkout cashier) scans the barcode as 4.55 zł

The shop's shelf price ticket says "500g yogurt, 4.55 zl" but the pack itself is 400g and has the printed price as "2.89 zl".

Is the shop allowed to charge more for the product than the printed price on the yogurt pack label?

I have no intention of kicking up a fuss or bothering the staff, but I wondered what the law says on this.

The price printed by the manufacturer on the package has probably a star and somewhere on it a description that it's a suggested price ("cena sugerowana"). That means that it's a price that the manufacturer suggest the shop to sell it for, but it's not obligatory at all.

Valid is always what states the label on the shelf. If it's written there that the price is 4.55 zł for 500 g, it should be sold for this price for 500 g according to the law. You should have complained, if it was a big supermarket, you should have gone to the customer service point and there they would explain it. If it was 400 g in fact, they should return money for the lacking 100 g.

Maybe the label you have read referred to another yoghurt brand.

Thanks.

Yes, it's definitely that yogurt the price on the shelf refers to. I didn't see an asterisk on the product price, but I know what you mean because we have the same in the UK.

It's a mid-size supermarket, not one of the big ones.

As for the portion size, I believe the manufacturer has recently downsized the portion size but kept the price (in most supermarkets) the same. This has also happened a lot in the UK over the past few years.

You should complain to the seller, and if it doesn't work, to the shop director. The law states that the price from the shelf is important, not what is saved in the memory of the till.

In bigger shops it's sometimes met that when the customer waits at the service point for explanation, they quickly change the label on the shelf to show them that they were wrong :)

And they will probably try to make difficulties when you want to complain, because it's difficult for them to register on the till something with changed price or with fractional amount. Which is very easy in case of a foreigner, they can just say they don't understand you. But it's always worth to try. Maybe you meet helpful staff.

Related: System of barcode in Poland?


In the whole EU it's all EAN13.