Unfortunately, many retailers misuse the term “sale”. And shoppers are often persuaded that a product is on sale even when it isn’t. [For our holiday shopping tips, pleaseclick here.]

As noted in Evans and Berman’sMarketing in the 21st Century: Price advertising guidelines have been set by the FTC and trade associations such as theBetter Business Bureau. TheFTC’s guidelinesset standards of permissible conduct in these categories:

• A firm may not claim or imply that a price has been reduced from a former level unless the original price was offered to the public on a regular basis during a reasonable, recent period of time.

• A firm may not claim its price is lower than that of competitors or the manufacturer’s list price without verifying, via price comparisons involving large quantities of merchandise, that an item’s price at other companies in the same trading…