Bogus countdown timers and misleading pricing at Black Friday sales have raised the hackles of the consumer watchdog.

A sweep of 50 Black Friday sellers found about half made concerning claims in their 2025 advertising, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission reported on Tuesday.

This included artificially inflated original prices for items on sale, claims of “sitewide” or “storewide” savings that in reality were extremely limited, and sale countdowns that reset periodically or where the discount endured even after the timer had expired.

By design, these ploys crafted a false sense of urgency that impaired consumers’ ability to make informed purchases, ACCC deputy chair Catriona Lowe said.

“That fear of missing out might mean they don’t go to other websites to compare, to see if that ‘bargain’ is genuinely a bargain,” she said.

The crackdown came after jeweller Michael Hill, homewares retailer MyHouse, and online hair care store Hairhouse were fined $19,800 apiece for similar breaches in 2024.

Michael Hill angered the regulator by promoting a sale with the words: “Member event 25 per cent off sitewide”, which contravened consumer law as the sale excluded some of the products in its online store.

Lowe said some retailers netted in the watchdog’s latest sweep were potential repeat offenders.

“We did revisit the sites of some of the traders we engaged in our earlier 2024 sweep … and we saw a bit of a mixed picture there”, she said.

“We continued to have concerns about some of the representations that we see.”

Retailers can be fined up to $50 million for misleading or deceptive conduct if the watchdog takes them to court.

Australians splurged a record $23.8 billion – an average of $862 per person – over the Black Friday fortnight in 2025 despite tightening cost-of-living pressures.

While it might seem strangely spendthrift, stretched wallets also meant shoppers increasingly timed big purchases to coincide with discounts, Lowe said.

“Consumers are looking out for these sales, often deferring purchases, particularly when times are tough and people might be really feeling the cost of living,” she said.

-AAP