Money · Black Friday 2026
A Black Friday deal is only real if the price is lower than what the item sold for recently. Enter the ‘was’ price, the sale price and the lowest price you have seen in recent weeks: the checker shows the claimed discount, the real saving and how far the advertised percentage overstates it.
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Claimed discount = (‘was’ price − sale price) ÷ ‘was’ price. Real saving = (recent lowest − sale price) ÷ recent lowest. Percentages are rounded to one decimal place.
Worked answers
Illustrative prices, not real offers. Each button loads them into the checker.
Real saving: 5.9% below its recent lowest price. Claimed discount: 38.5% (£50.00 off £129.99). Real saving against its recent lowest price (£84.99): 5.9% (£5.00). The claimed 38.5% is measured from a ‘was’ price above the recent lowest, so it overstates the saving by 32.6 percentage points.
Not a real deal: it has been cheaper recently. Claimed discount: 33.4% (£100.00 off £299.00). It was £10.00 cheaper at its recent lowest (£189.00): today’s price is 5.3% above it.
No real saving: the same as its recent lowest price. Claimed discount: 18.2% (£100.00 off £549.00). Today’s price equals its recent lowest (£449.00), so the real saving is 0%, not 18.2%.
28.1% off the ‘was’ price. Claimed discount: 28.1% (£70.00 off £249.00). Add the lowest price you have seen for the same item in recent weeks (from a price-history site or your own notes) to check the saving against a price people actually paid.
Why it matters
A ‘was’ price or RRP may be higher than the price most people actually paid. Which? reported in 2025 that every Black Friday deal it analysed was cheaper or the same price at other times of the year. Which? Black Friday research. For the rules on misleading prices, see the CMA's guidance: CMA207 unfair commercial practices guidance (GOV.UK).
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Helpful answers
Compare the sale price with the lowest price the same item has sold for in recent weeks, not only with the ‘was’ price or RRP on the label. If today’s price is no lower than that recent lowest, the deal saves you nothing, whatever percentage is advertised.
Take the saving (the old price minus the new price) and divide it by the old price. For example, £129.99 down to £79.99 saves £50.00, which is 38.5% of £129.99. Against a recent lowest of £84.99 the real saving is £5.00, or 5.9%.
Price-history websites and browser extensions track the prices of many products at big retailers. You can also note the price yourself a few weeks before Black Friday. Use the same seller and the same model, colour and size.
Not always. Which? reported that every Black Friday deal it analysed in 2025 was cheaper or the same price at other times of the year, which is why checking a recent lowest price matters.
The Competition and Markets Authority publishes guidance for traders on unfair commercial practices (CMA207) on GOV.UK, updated in November 2025 for its guidance on price transparency. This checker only does the arithmetic; it does not judge whether a trader has broken the law.